CONGRESS. 




AMERICA, 



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MEMORIAL 



/ 



JOSEPH P. FAIRBANKS 



SAMUEL H. TAYLOR 



RIVERSIDE 

1865 




4 



TO 

THE SURVIVING BROTHER, 

THADDEUS FAIRBANKS 

THIS MEMORIAL IS INSCRIBED. 



<A* 



'. J? 



A 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



MEMORIAL. 



i. 

The record of a successful and useful life is always 
instructive. The process and influences by which the 
character was formed and strengthened, the circum- 
stances which gave it its peculiar type, the efforts put 
forth for the results reached, the obstacles met and 
overcome, and the different spheres of influence, are 
useful lessons for study and imitation. Character 
presents itself in every variety of form ; it is as varied 
as the human countenance. The story of one life is 
never the measure of another. There will be points 
of agreement, but always points of difference. The 
great features may be the same, while there will be 
some diversity to mark the individuality of each. 
Every circle, be it wider or more limited, has lost 
some attractive name, some centre of many hopes. 
Such a name should not be forgotten. The good 
associated with it, the controlling power of which it is 
the representative, should be cherished and kept alive. 
The influence of a good man does not cease when he 
is laid in the grave ; the great and the good just 
begin to live when they die. The life that before 



2 MEMORIAL. 

was viewed only in its parts, in its particular acts 
and relations, now that all these are the representa- 
tives of a single character, of one honored name, has 
a deeper and more impressive interest for those who 
would profit by it. 

The object of this Memorial is to present the char- 
acter of one who aimed to do his duty ; who was 
unwearied in his efforts to find opportunities to benefit 
individuals and communities ; and who made his in- 
fluence felt upon society in more directions and more 
effectively than most men in private life. The record 
of his life is that of a meek and lowly disciple, with 
little or no incident to give it interest, with no star- 
tling results, but in its unobtrusive earnestness and 
the breadth of its influence full of instruction and 
incentive. 

Joseph Paddock Fairbanks was born in Brimfield, 
Mass., November 26, 1806, and removed with his 
parents to St. Johnsbury, Vt., in May, 1815. Though 
his parents were in humble circumstances, they were 
eminent for their moral worth, for a consistent and 
unostentatious piety, and for whatever is of good re- 
port. Their family consisted of three sons. Joseph, 
the youngest, was eleven years the junior of his next 
older brother, and was not unnaturally a favorite of 
his parents, for whom he had a remarkable affection 
and reverence, which never abated even in their ex- 
treme old age. His early youth was marked by the 
same gentleness, simplicity, and guilelessness which 



MEMORIAL. S 

characterized his later life. A companion thus de- 
scribes his character at this period : 

" Among the boys of his own age, he was always 
regarded with respect as well as affection. With a 
spirit as gentle as a woman's, and with a manner 
quiet and soft, he joined a manliness and decision 
of character, a moral courage, a resolute determina- 
tion to pursue the right and shun the wrong, which 
always challenged the respect and admiration of his 
associates. He early evinced a love of the true, the 
pure, and the beautiful. In our boyish pastimes he 
shrunk from contact with coarser natures, and repelled 
with indignant loathing the ribald jest, the profane 
allusion, the licentious innuendo. I never knew him 
utter an untruth even playfully. His reverential 
regard for his parents was the subject of comment 
even among children of his own age." 1 

Another early companion says of him : " He 
was of a remarkably amiable disposition, and per- 
fectly gentle in his manners. I do not remember 
that he ever received any correction at school, as 
the rest of us did ; and I am quite sure he never 
deserved any. In our out-of-door sports he partici- 
pated less freely than some, and was always less 
boisterous ; and when strifes arose among us, Joseph 
was the peace-maker, and the protector of the in- 
jured." 2 

Yet another early associate says : " I remember 

1 Professor Milo P. Jewett, D. D. 

2 Professor Edward A. Lawrence, D. D. 



4 MEMORIAL. 

distinctly that friend Jos. P., as I always used to 
call him, was a general favorite with the boys with 
whom we used to associate. His kind, affectionate, 
unselfish disposition made him dear to all ; and while 
yet a boy, I think he was just as remarkable for 

truthfulness and conscientiousness as in maturer 

" 1 
years. 

He early evinced an unusual fondness for reading. 
He would oftener be found in the chimney-corner 
with his books than with his companions at their 
sports. At this period he had access to but few literary 
works. No treasure, therefore, was ever more highly 
prized by him than some new volume which he had 
not before seen ; and he manifested great enthusiasm 
when he first saw in the neighborhood a small case 
of books, which he looked upon as a large library, 
and from which he asked the loan of a Shakspeare. 
But he was greatly disappointed when told that he 
was too young to read such a work. 

His means of early education were quite limited, 
not extending beyond the narrow range of study 
pursued in the district school ; and the course of 
instruction here, as he afterwards described it him- 
self, was anything but thorough. He never had 
the advantages of an Academic or Collegiate edu- 
cation. 

In the year 1825, the young men of St. Johnsbury 
formed a literary Society, called the St. Johnsbury 
Philadelphian Society. The object was mutual liter- 

1 Dr. Adams Jewett. 



MEMORIAL. 5 

ary improvement. The exercises consisted of " ex- 
tempore and written debates, compositions, and dec- 
lamations." One of the first objects was to procure 
a library, and establish a fund by which it might 
be perpetuated. In this Society Mr. Fairbanks took 
an active part and a deep interest. Before it he 
read his first compositions. It is interesting- to notice 
the progressive improvement in these. The earliest 
one, though indicating considerable thought, is writ- 
ten in a cramped style, and in a crude and stiff hand. 
But each successive one shows a growing freedom 
of expression and a marked improvement in the 
handwriting. It is quite evident that he made a 
special effort to profit by the exercises of this Society ; 
and they were without doubt one of the most valuable 
means of his education. 

Another means of early improvement was his cor- 
respondence with his friends, with some of whom 
this was the professed object. In a letter to his 
cousin, Miss C, he says : " Your remarks con- 
cerning epistolary writing I hope will be the means 
of improving my style, which I think is very need- 
ful; for I am a mere novice in the art as yet, and 
experience great difficulty in expressing my thoughts 
in any manner, more especially with any degree of 
grace or ease. The opportunity I have of corre- 
sponding with you is a great privilege to me, as I 
have thereby a chance of improving both by your 
example and by my own practice ; and I hope that 
you will occasionally insert directions for my im- 



6 MEMORIAL. 

provement, and inform me wherein I fail. One thing 
I would suggest; that is, that we dispense with 
all apologies and flattery, as I am sure we can find 
better subjects." 

Few persons at his age would have acknowledged 
their defects so frankly, or with such manliness have 
sought instruction from such a source. But through 
life he aimed to improve himself, and he never neg- 
lected any honorable means of securing instruction. 

In another letter to the cousin just referred to 
he says : "I was much gratified with your ac- 
count of the Commencement at Cambridge. I have 
perused Professor Everett's Eulogy with deep in- 
terest, as I am persuaded every American citizen 
will do. The patriotic sentiments it contains must 
afford delight to every one who lives in a country 
which boasts of Adams and Jefferson for its fathers. 
Mr. Everett's style, I think, is very good. For 
example : ' Tell me, ye who tread on yonder height, 
is Warren dead \ Is he indeed laid low, and is 
the purple torrent gushing from his breast ? ' I can- 
not recollect all the sentence, and probably what I 
have repeated is incorrect. It is a beautiful sentence, 
and seems almost to carry us to the place where 
Warren reposes, in the bosom of a free and happy 
land. Yet there is one fault I find with the Eulogy, 
though perhaps others would not call it a fault ; it 
is the length of some of his sentences. In declama- 
tion, I think force of expression is peculiarly neces- 
sary, and to effect this the sentences must be short, 



MEMORIAL. / 

or at least must not be very long. The whole 
speech, however, shows that it is the effort of a 
noble genius ; and I should judge, merely from the 
reading of it, that the author was a perfect orator." 
Mr. Everett, no doubt, would have smiled, had he 
known of this criticism on one of his most finished 
productions, by a Green Mountain boy who had 
never had the advantages of even an Academic edu- 
cation. 

In the year 18&7, ^ ev * Mr* Johnson, then pastor 
of the church on St. Johnsbury Plain, formed a 
Bible-class, composed chiefly of adults, which met 
once each week. This class at times contained over 
sixty members, and its exercises were conducted with 
great interest. Subjects on which to write were 
assigned to the members ; and their essays, when pre- 
pared, were read before the class. Mr. Fairbanks 
was a member of this class from the commencement, 
and continued in it till he left St. Johnsbury. Thirty 
essays which he prepared for it are preserved. Thev 
show a careful and comprehensive study of the Bible, 
and an intelligent and well-digested view of its lead- 
ing doctrines. The interest which he took in the 
exercises of this class, and those of the literary Society 
with which he was connected, contributed largely to 
the discipline of his mind, and to the cultivation of 
his facility and taste for writing. 



II. 



In 1826 Mr. Fairbanks commenced the study of 
Law with his uncle, Judge Ephraim Paddock, of St. 
Johnsbury. Upon this he entered with much earnest- 
ness. The principles and reasonings of the law were 
congenial to his tastes, and he found a pleasure in 
making them his own. He did not merely enter his 
name in a lawyer's office, as is too often the case, 
giving his chief attention to other pursuits ; nor did he 
" read law," as the fashionable phrase now is ; but 
he studied it in its intricacies and subtleties till he 
was supposed to be fitted for the bar. When he 
presented himself for examination, by the united tes- 
timony of those present, he sustained a more thorough 
examination than any one who had previously come 
before them. 

At the time he entered upon the study of law he 
evidently had some ambitious views, and was ex- 
pecting to make it the means of official preferment. 
In a letter to a particular friend, then a member 
of Dartmouth College, who was inclined to study 
medicine as a profession, he thus writes, with the 
hope of changing his intended course of study : " I 
think the profession of the Law affords a greater 
chance to excel, and a better opportunity of being 



MEMORIAL. 9 

employed in official stations, than the profession of 
Medicine. A large proportion of the offices of trust 
and honor in this republic have ever been rilled by 
persons who were educated for the bar." 

This is the only indication in any of his writings 
that he ever thought of official honors. The whole 
course of his subsequent life showed that he had no 
such aims. 

While engaged in the study of law, he commenced 
Latin under such private instruction as could be ob- 
tained in the place of his residence. To his legal, 
classical, and some literary studies he devoted an 
unusual amount of time every day, reserving far 
too little for exercise and sleep. When remon- 
strated with by his friends for allowing himself so 
little time for rest, he confidently assured them that 
he needed but four hours a day for sleep. This was 
a serious mistake, and one which he never entirely 
corrected. During his whole life he allowed him- 
self less time for rest than his constitution required. 

After he was admitted to the bar, he practised 
law for one year with his uncle, Judge Paddock. 
He then opened an office on his own account, at the 
same time acting as the postmaster of the place, and 
keeping a small book-store. Of his practice at this 
time he thus writes to a friend : " The small business 
of the office is increasing, and I hope to make a 
living here, though riches are out of the question, 
for the present at least. I have had no opportunity, 
as yet, of discovering whether I have any declamatory 



10 MEMORIAL. 

qualities, the great criterion of a good lawyer in 
common estimation ; and perhaps it is well that I 
have not, as I may thereby have escaped the ridicule 
of the public. I shall, however, make the desperate 
trial when I have a disputable case. The good 
people here are so peaceable, that they seem but 
little inclined to assist a poor lawyer by engaging 
in quarrels, as in all conscience they should do, if 
they intend that every one should live by his trade." 
But the " desperate trial " he never made ; for his 
experience was daily teaching him, that, deep as was 
his interest in the study of the law, and profound as 
might be his admiration of the principles on which 
it was based, the practice of it was ill adapted to his 
delicate sensibilities and self-distrust. For this reason 
he began to entertain thoughts of abandoning the pro- 
fession. In a letter to a friend he says : " It is some- 
what uncertain whether I shall stay in this place; 
my business is not very good, and I should like bet- 
ter some other employment. I hope yet, however, that 
I shall be able to stay here." Among his memoranda 
the following extract is found, which undoubtedly 
refers to his experience in the practice of law : 
" I was called to mingle with the cold and heartless 
world, and its chilly atmosphere struck a damp upon 
my soul. I was disgusted with its selfishness and 
hypocrisy ; and gladly would I have led the life of a 
hermit rather than have encountered its turmoils and 
embarrassments." 

It is not an easy matter for a young man just 



MEMORIAL 1 1 

setting out in life to abandon his chosen pursuit. 
He knows how many eyes are upon him, watching 
his progress and his prospects ; he is conscious that 
a change of profession will be viewed by many as 
a confession of failure or mistake. His confidence 
in himself, too, is liable to be impaired ; yet, in full 
view of all this, after many struggles and misgivings, 
Mr. Fairbanks concluded to relinquish the law, after 
he had been in the practice a little less than three 
years. 

From childhood the subject of this sketch had 
been impressed by religious truth. Though his life 
to human view was blameless, he knew that God 
looketh not upon the outward appearance, but upon 
the heart. . He knew that while the fountain and 
springs of action were wrong, his life, however 
faultless in the view of men, was not right in the 
sight of God. 

In the year 1827 there was a powerful revival of 
religion in Dartmouth College ; of this some of Mr. 
Fairbanks's early associates and particular friends had 
become the hopeful subjects ; and in their correspond- 
ence they had given him an account of its progress, 
and faithfully urged upon him a serious consideration 
of the same subject. This undoubtedly had much 
influence in arresting his attention, and leading him 
to consider his religious interests with more serious- 
ness than ever before. We have no record of the 
struggles and conflicts of this period, of his deep 



\2 MEMORIAL. 

searchings of heart and penitence for sin ; these were 
all between himself and his God. But that the 
change was a thorough and radical one was abun- 
dantly attested by the life of humble and consistent 
piety that followed it. 

Such had been the purity and blamelessness of his 
life, that, as his pastor remarked, no one would detect 
any change in him ; yet he humbly trusted, though 
he was sometimes in darkness, that a real change had 
been wrought. He found new sources of happiness, 
and marked out for himself new and higher ends 
of life. 

In 1828, he united with the Church on St. Johns- 
bury Plain, then under the pastoral care of Rev. 
James Johnson. He continued an exemplary and 
useful member of it till 1852, when he transferred 
his relation to the South Church. 

The following extract from a letter to his friend 
A., residing at the South, shows how early he be- 
gan to consider the corrupting influences at work in 
society, as well as the earnestness of his religious 
character, and his fidelity to the spiritual interests of 
his friend : " Your opinion of the Opera I should 
coincide with, from your description of it. How 
many schools for vice does our country throng with, 
and how faint a resistance is made to them. Even 
men of professed principle and morality, for the sake 
of money, will embark both influence and capital in 
the promotion of what is ruinous to the character, 
happiness, the present and eternal interests of their 



MEMORIAL. 13 

fellow-men, under the specious plea, that, ' if they do 
not, others will.' They strive to present vice in its 
most alluring forms, and to cover the path to ruin 
with flowers ; and thus the unhappy victim is deluded, 
till he falls a sacrifice to vain, unsatisfying pleasure. 
Few of our youth will turn away from the alluring 
paths of vice when under the mask of pleasure. 

"But cease to moralize, friend J., you will say; and 
so I will, dear A. ; but suffer me to touch on another 
topic that I introduced into my former letter. Suffer 
me to ask you if you think on the subject of religion. 
I know you think of it ; you cannot avoid it. But do 
you give it the candid attention it deserves 1 or do 
you heedlessly drive your thoughts into a different 
channel when they wander beyond the grave 1 I 
am ignorant of your views on the subject. I think 
you believe in the doctrines of the Bible ; if so, you 
must know the importance of a speedy preparation 
for death, for the delay of one hour may be attended 
with the loss of the soul. Can any one with the 
exercise of reason run so great a risk ] I am sure 
your reason must be convinced of the importance of 
this subject ; and will you not, my friend, go with 
me and enlist in the service of the Prince of Peace % 
So far as I have proved His service, it is easy — it is 
delightful. I experience a degree of positive hap- 
piness that I once thought unattainable. What I 
once thought a dream, I find a reality. What once 
seemed a delusion of fancy, appears a truth of the 
deepest interest. Possibly, A., you will say : ' This 



14 MEMORIAL. 

strain well becomes a minister, but is absurd for 
you to use.' But why so % I have discovered that 
I was placed in this world by a wise Being" to pre- 
pare for another ; and I have determined with His 
assistance to take Christ for my example, and to 
strive to live as though each day I enter upon was 
the last. I think you must have been convinced 
that I was your friend when you resided here ; and 
I can candidly say that if ever I enjoyed a person's 
society, if ever I felt an interest in a person's wel- 
fare, it was yours. But whatever I may have felt 
towards you heretofore, I can assure you I now feel 
a deeper interest, a more intense anxiety for your 
welfare than ever before." 

The following letter was written to his cousin, Miss 
Paddock, while he was on a visit to Maine, and is 
another illustration of his interest for the spiritual 
welfare of his friends : — 

" Saco, Sept. 4, 1831. 

" I expected to have seen you again, my cousin 
C, before I left St. Johnsbury. I was anxious to 
see you because you seemed to me more thought- 
ful than usual on the subject of religion ; and to 
see your attention engaged in this would give me 
sincere pleasure. There are few, my dear cousin, 
for whom I feel any deeper interest than for the com- 
mon family of mankind, and you are one of these 
few. You know we have always been intimate 
friends from your childhood. We have associated 
together, we have conversed with each other ; and 



MEMORIAL. 15 

while I have esteemed you, I have had the vanity 
to believe that I possessed your esteem in return. 
You may well suppose, then, that I have earnestly 
hoped that our friendship would not terminate with 
our brief existence here, but that it would be pro- 
longed through the countless ages of another world. 
To secure this you know a change of heart is neces- 
sary. I have a hope that I have experienced this 
change, and I most anxiously desire that you may 
possess the same hope. I wish, too, that you may 
possess it now. This subject is of such a nature, 
that, if we put it off to any future time, we are con- 
tinually getting further from that time, instead of 
approaching it. The expectation that we shall be 
better prepared then than now is delusive. Now is 
the best time — the only time we are sure of. 

" But do you inquire, dear cousin, what you shall 
do to obtain a change of heart I Give yourself to 
God ; dedicate all the powers and faculties of your 
mind to Him, and give up everything that you think 
inconsistent with His service. In whatever we do, 
we must rely on God for His assistance. We must 
ask Him for it; and we have His promise to assist us. 
We need to know what our situation is, before we 
have repentance and faith. We ought to ask God, 
then, to show us our hearts. We ought to examine 
ourselves. ' What is it that God has required us to 
doT and ' Have we done all this]' God requires us 
to love Him with our whole heart, and our neighbor 
as ourselves. ' Now, have I loved God supremely ! ' 



16 MEMORIAL. 

I fear that no one can say that he has loved Him 
with his whole heart ; and if he has not, he has 
broken God's holy law, — he has sinned. Oh, C, I 
fear that the most innocent, if they will examine their 
hearts, will find themselves very sinful. I fear that 
you would find yourself a very great sinner. How 
much need, then, that you should earnestly plead 
with God to pardon you for Christ's sake, who has 
made atonement for your sins by His death. Will 
you not now make a resolution that with God's as- 
sistance you will no more disobey Him \ That you 
will endeavor to do all that He has shown you to be 
your duty, and to make it your daily study to learn 
what duty is \ If you will make this firm determina- 
tion, with a humble reliance on God, and try to ful- 
fil it all in your power, I believe that God will assist 
you, and save you. I hope you will go this day and 
give yourself away to Him. I can tell you, it will 
add to your happiness, and you will lose no rational 
enjoyment. Study your Bible much, and, in the lan- 
guage of that holy volume, ' Watch and pray.' Let 
this be your motto." 

This cousin, in whose conversion Mr. Fairbanks 
felt so deep an interest, shortly after became a hum- 
ble and consistent Christian ; and he who thus faith- 
fully pointed her to the Saviour at length smoothed 
her path to the grave and robbed it of its terrors, 
having himself trod the " dark valley" but a few 
weeks before her. And now that friendship which 



MEMORIAL. 17 

he hoped would not terminate with this life, is ce- 
mented by a bond which none of the changes or 
vicissitudes of time can ever weaken. 

The following is a specimen of the pleasant and 
playful style in which he often wrote to his cousin 
just alluded to. It is dated, Augusta, Me., Sep- 
tember 10, 1831. 

" The stillness of evening has a strange tendency 
to lead the mind of the wanderer back to home, and 
often when the day is fading away in the west, and 
darkness regaining her empire, Fancy will wrest the 
reins from Reason's hands and gallop off full speed 
to the Green Mountains, and take a view of those 
with whom I have fondly and happily associated in 
by-gone days. She begins at the village, and just 
peeps into each house, scarcely stopping to say, 'How 
do you do,' till she arrives at the head of the Plain ; 
and then, retracing her steps, she carelessly loiters 
along with a few, the most familiar friends, till some 
rude jostle or noise calls her back to Maine, or till 
she becomes tired or jaded with exertion, and is 
glad to give up the chase." 

To the same he writes : 

" The influence of the Holy Spirit, I trust, still 
abides with you, and will continue to till all are 
brought into the fold of Christ. 1 have sometimes 
been pained with the thought that the revival might 
cease, and then some of those I have associated with 
will be without a hope of pardon, and be less likely 
to obtain such a hope than if they had never wit- 



18 MEMORIAL. 

nessed the display of God's power there. But I think 
the revival will not cease. Its continuance is of such 
overwhelming importance that I hope you will wrestle 
with God to save all. 

" I often think of the Sabbath school ; and when 
the hour of twelve comes, I think of the pleasure it 
would give me to meet my scholars. I often think 
I have not been so faithful to them as I should have 
been, and wish that the opportunity was not past to 
amend it. There is a weight of responsibility resting 
on us in regard to the Sabbath school, which ought 
often to be brought to mind. The time is short 
that we can work, but while it lasts, we have an 
opportunity which we ought to improve faithfully. 
I hope, C, that we shall both live more devoted to 
Christ ; but I find myself so frail, so liable to get 
away from Him, that I feel the need of your prayers." 

Other letters of Mr. Fairbanks, written at this 
time, show a lively interest in the growth of vital 
piety in his own heart, among his friends, and in 
the Church generally. Though he often speaks de- 
spondingly of his own religious state, like Cowper, 
looking upon himself distrustfully, those who knew 
him best had the fullest assurance of the integrity 
and consistency of his Christian character. This is 
corroborated by the following entry in his Memo- 
randa, Sunday, July 10, 1831, when forty-seven 
were admitted to the Church of which he was a 
member : 

" This is a solemn day. Many are about to enter 



MEMORIAL. 19 

into covenant with God, to dedicate themselves to 
Him, and separate themselves from the world. What 
cause for gratitude! 'T is of God's unexampled good- 
ness that these forty-seven souls have been snatched 
from the ranks of His adversary, and washed in the 
blood of Christ. Oh, unspeakable love, undeserved 
goodness ! This morning I have been up to the 
house of the Lord for prayer. The Spirit, I trust, 
was present. How delightful to see the children of 
God assembled on the still Sabbath morning, before 
their minds are distracted with the cares of life, send- 
ing up the united desires of their hearts to the mercy- 
seat. Great God, give me a heart to engage more 
fervently in this devout exercise, and do Thou give 
me more of Thy Spirit." 



III. 



Before closing the practice of law at St. Johns- 
bury, Mr. Fairbanks had made arrangements to en- 
gage in mercantile business at Troy, Vt. Here he 
commenced trade early in April, 183£, in company 
with his cousin, Horace Paddock, of St. Johnsbury. 

Mr. Fairbanks had not made this change without 
many a struggle. He had gone from his home with 
many regrets and much despondency. He had left 
behind him a circle of friends, whose tastes and 
sympathies were congenial with his own. He had 
just relinquished a profession, to which he had looked 
forward as the business of his life, under the con- 
viction that he was destitute of some elements of 
character requisite to success in it. But his feelings 
are best indicated by the following extract from a let- 
ter to a friend : " We all seem to consider ourselves 
a world by ourselves ; if it were such a world as you 
have at St. Johnsbury, I could be contented ; but the 
inhabitants are not just such as I left, and I fear 
never will be. I would not have you suppose, how- 
ever, that I am discontented. I have made up my 
mind to call this home, and make it so if possible ; 
and, although I do not enjoy the privileges, social and 
religious, that I did at St. Johnsbury, and do not 



MEMORIAL. 21 

find the refinement nor meet the faces of friends as 
I did there, I still contrive to make time pass without 
being very oppressive, though the hours and minutes 
between our semi-weekly mails seem rather long." 

The following from his Memoranda relates to the 
same subject : " Eight weeks have elapsed since I 
bid adieu to the scenes of my early days. I feel as 
though I were a solitary thing on this earth. Time 
has been rolling on the vast affairs of man down its 
rough and swelling waves ; pleasure, wealth, and 
honors have been pursued with ceaseless toil ; some 
have pushed their way safely ahead ; some have been 
dashed against the rocks, and have sunk to rise no 
more. Amid this busy scene I simply exist ; my 
solitary bark floats silently along the current, un- 
marked and unregarded." 

The interest with which he regarded his early home 
and the scenes and associations connected with it, 
rising to an almost enthusiastic reverence, is indicated 
by an extract from his Memoranda : 

"June 13, 1882. Returned to St. J. last week, 
and spent one night. I cannot describe the feelings 
I experienced when I found myself again on the spot 
which above all others I value, and which is hallowed 
by recollections the most interesting, and the most 
deeply engraved upon my heart. I stopped at the 
head of the Plain, before the office where I had spent 
so many happy hours in professional and literary 
studies. It was dark and silent ; only a few lights 
were seen twinkling at the windows down the street ; 



22 MEMORIAL. 

but still every object around me seemed to claim ac- 
quaintance. The shade-trees, the houses, the fields, 
the hills which rose darkly against the horizon, seemed 
to greet their old admirer with silent joy. Even the 
stars which so brightly studded the heavens, and with 
which I had so often held a joyful intercourse ' in 
days that are past and gone,' seemed to recognize 
their old friend, and to send forth a brighter and yet 
softer splendor than I had before observed for months. 
It was a glad — sad meeting ; and the inclination to 
stand still and enjoy the scene, or to move on, was 
so nearly balanced that I could hardly muster resolu- 
tion to proceed." 

The following is from a letter written to his cousin 
C, soon after his first visit home, referred to in the 
preceding extract : 

"Troy, June 18, 1832. 

" You see that I am again an inhabitant of Troy. 
I reached home the next day after I saw you. Since 
then, Troy has seemed like another place, and I begin 
to think that I can contentedly take up my abode 
here for years. But I cannot so easily transfer the 
local attachment I have for St. Johnsbury scenes to 
this place. Every house, tree, and shrub, every hill 
and valley in that place, often passes in review before 
my mind's eye, and awakens recollections of other 
days. I believe I did not tell you how long I was 
in going from the head of the Plain to father's, the 
evening in which I" arrived at St. Johnsbury. In 
the first place, I stopped my horse at the office, then 



MEMORIAL. 28 

rode up to Mr. P.'s door : they were all still, and 
so I passed on ; tried to peep into H.'s, but could 
not catch a glimpse of any one, though a light was 
burning ; called at E.'s store, and knocked, but re- 
ceived no answer ; paused before the house of God, 
where I had spent so many happy hours. The silence 
of death prevailed, and the scene awakened feelings 
almost too powerful to control. I passed on till I 
came where some of the 'dead forgotten lie,' and 
some remembered. I went on, and every step was 
associated with interesting events, and vividly called 
up the recollections of the days when I was sur- 
rounded with friends. But you will call me unmanly, 
and well you may, if I continue in this strain." 

The feelings here expressed in regard to his home 
and the painful regrets at being separated from it 
may seem extravagant, and tinged with a poetic col- 
oring ; but they are no more than a true indication of 
his actual experience. His attachment to his home 
was like that of a child ; he could never forget it. 
He loved to remember the hills that rose up in gran- 
deur around it on all sides, and the valleys, and 
the meadows, and the beautiful streams that flowed 
through them. It was not the artificial attractions 
of his home that made it a centre of such unwavering 
interest ; it was on no stately mansion or richly 
furnished apartments that his thoughts lingered ; in 
his own words, " the rude house occupied by my 
father's family for several years would hardly be re- 



24 MEMORIAL. 

garded, at the present day, a comfortable shelter for 
cattle;" but his simple tastes, his warm affections, 
his open and unveiled heart, his quick sympathy with 
the beauties of Nature strewn lavishly around the home 
of his youth, his delicacy of feeling too refined for 
the sterner features of the world, found more that 
was congenial among his early friends, and in the 
humble spot which he always called his home, than 
in the circles of fashion or the abodes of wealth. 

On his birthday of this year (1832) he makes 
the following entry in his Memoranda, showing that 
he had taken a faithful survey of the past, and indi- 
cating his purposes and resolutions for the future : 

" Twenty-six years have now elapsed since I first 
opened my eyes on this world. Twenty-six years have 
thus joined the past eternity, never to be recalled ; 
but how many years of the eternity future I am to 
pass in this state of probation God only knows. 
Whether few or many, it becomes me to spend the 
time more profitably than I have heretofore done. 
Religion is my chief concern ; and, with the assistance 
of God, I will hereafter make it my first business to 
serve Him faithfully and acceptably ; and in whatever 
I may engage, I will strive to make my conduct 
accessory to His glory. O Lord, assist me to obey 
Thee more implicitly. 

" Subsidiary to the discharge of religious duties, 
I will make the improvement of my mind my great 
object of pursuit. To accomplish this, I will endeavor 
as much as possible to reduce everything to a system, 



MEMORIAL. 25 

whether business, study, or recreation. So far as is 
necessary I will apply myself assiduously to business, 
but leisure shall be spent in study on such subjects 
as are useful. In my intercourse with my fellow- 
men I will make the rule of right my only guide ; 
and in conversation I will avoid as much as possible 
speaking of the character of others, unless I can com- 
mend them. O Thou all-wise God, grant me wisdom 
to perform the above resolution ; and may my life 
be so guided by the spirit of the gospel, that I may 
be progressing in divine knowledge and growing in 
grace." 

Shortly after he settled at Troy, and before he 
could have accumulated more than a few hundred 
dollars, he commenced that system of benevolent effort 
for educating young men for the ministry in which 
he afterward took so deep an interest. In his mem- 
oranda of August 7? 1832, he thus writes : (i Wrote 
to D. K., renewing my offer to assist him in his 
studies preparatory for the ministry. With the aid 
of my great Benefactor, I propose to render him what 
pecuniary assistance he may need in acquiring an 
education for that profession ; and if I should die 
before he has completed it, I wish my brothers to 
take what property I may have, and see that object 
accomplished." 

The advantages which he had derived from the 
literary association with which he was connected- at 
St. Johnsbury, led him to desire the formation of a 
similar one at Troy. In a letter to his friend A. 

4 



g6 MEMORIAL. 

he thus gives an account of such an organization, 
with his usual modesty keeping his own agency out 
of si<?ht : " A few of our most intelligent men have 
formed themselves into a club, meet once in two 
weeks, take two or three reviews, and, at their 
meetings, either read a dissertation, discuss some 
popular subject, or enter into free conversation on 
literary and scientific subjects. I have been admit- 
ted a member of this association, and have found it 
a source of profit ! " 

While Mr. Fairbanks was pursuing his business at 
Troy, with no expectation or thought of change, in- 
fluences were at work elsewhere which were to give 
a new direction to his life, and ultimately to place 
him in a situation where his energies and character 
would be more successfully developed. His broth- 
ers, 1 since extensively known as the firm of E. and 
T. Fairbanks, had a short time before commenced 
the manufacture of their celebrated Platform Scales. 
The great accuracy of these, and their superiority over 
any similar articles, gave assurance of an extensive 
demand when they should become known. The firm, 
therefore, wished to employ agents to make known 

1 Since this sketch was written, the eldest of these brothers, Ex- 
Governor Erastus Fairbanks, has deceased. Governor Fairbanks 
was extensively known throughout the country as a gentleman of 
marked ability and enterprise, and of commanding influence in Church 
and State, in both of which he held important places of trust. His 
death will be widely and deeply felt, and few men in the State can 
fill the large sphere of influence which he long occupied. Like his 
youngest brother, he fell asleep with the assurance of awaking with 
his Saviour. 



MEMORIAL. £7 

the merits of their scales in different parts of the 
country, and to sell them. They accordingly invited 
their brother Joseph to engage in this business. Such 
offers were made to him that he was induced to close 
his business at Troy, after he had been there one year. 
He thus playfully writes to his friend A., respecting 
his intended change : " You will be surprised to learn 
that I think of leaving here very shortly. The reason 
of my leaving is because my brothers have made me 
proposals so tempting that I cannot resist them, — 
which are the privilege of riding about the country 
and peddling out Hay Scales. I don't suppose that 
Cicero would rank either this or my present business 
among the ' honorable employments ; ' but a Yankee 
would pass a different judgment, and call any employ- 
ment honorable which will produce what we are too 
much in the habit of considering the ' staff of life.' ' : 



IV. 



About the last of April, 1833, he enters upon his 
new enterprise. The field of his operations is in the 
State of Maiue. He sets out with a heavy load and 
a heavier heart. Of his first day's experience he 
makes the following record : c: To-day travelling has 
been hard, and a great part of the way I have walked. 
As I was walking through the woods this evening, 
my reflections were occasionally interrupted by the 
solitary howl of the wolf, or the ' owl's lone hoot,' 
and I thought that these melancholy interruptions of 
the reign of silence chimed sadly with my own feel- 
ings. O home ! sweet, sweet home, when shall I 
again enjoy all the endearing associations which thou 
dost give ] Not in this world do I expect to find 
such a home as I have left ; but in heaven will I 
strive to obtain a home, and there will hope to meet 
and enjoy the society of my friends." 

The new scenes into which his present business 
brought him, though often trying to his delicate sen- 
sibilities, which led him to shrink from the rougher 
aspects of life, had a salutary influence upon his 
character. He must meet life in all its varied phases, 
and adapt himself to them ; he must cultivate a spirit 
of enterprise, or his business was a failure. At times 



MEMORIAL. 29 

he was in straits ; once he had exhausted his funds, 
and was obliged to pawn his watch to meet his ex- 
penses. In his own words : " I have been scouring 
the State this side of the Penobscot, and have been 
into almost every hole which man has found habitable, 
and into many places not capable of supporting any- 
thing but a few stunted squirrels or pigeons." 

" When I drove up to this place [public-house at 
Anson], about a dozen men of the most outlandish 
cast stood at the door, their sole dress consisting of 
a red flannel shirt, a pair of pantaloons, and a pair of 
stockings. After seeing my horse put up, I went 
into the bar-room, where I found the whole gang 
seated around the room, occupying every seat, nook, 
and corner ; in one place a pile of boots and shoes, 
in another a pile of knapsacks, and white round- 
topped hats kicking around the room wherever a 
place could be found. All were silent and sat like 
statues, gazing at me, till at length, after getting a 
glass of water and looking in vain for a seat, I re- 
treated. Then the spell was broken, and all has 
been noise and ' confusion worse confounded,' though 
they have treated me with perfect respect." 

Such experiences were teaching him what the world 
was, and were preparing him to meet it. They made 
him more self-reliant, and convinced him that diffi- 
culties and hardships could be overcome ; that they 
were not all that his self-distrust had pictured them. 
Desponding as he sometimes was, under these in- 
fluences, he never thought of yielding to them, and 



SO MEMORIAL. 

sitting down inactive. "Pride," he says, "drives 
me into action. Even by those whose opinion I 
slightly value, I would not be considered a worth- 
less vagabond ; so I try to bend my mind to business, 
though what others acquire by so doing I do not 
expect, nor do I very ardently desire." 

In his journeyings from place to place, he is never 
idle ; he is carefully observing the scenery of the 
State, and studying its physical features, or contem- 
plating the beauties of Nature almost with a poet's 
eye. To a friend he writes : " Maine has a great 
variety of soils ; some parts afford as beautiful farming 
lands as I have ever seen, and others are as barren 
as the steppes of Tartary, with the exception of pine- 
trees and blueberries ; other parts again are as wild 
and rocky as the White Mountains. But the country 
is so well watered by lakes, ponds, and rivers, that 
it has rather a romantic appearance. In many places 
you can hardly travel three miles without having a 
delightful view of some large pond, frequently inter- 
spersed with islands, and surrounded by farms highly 
cultivated." 

Again he writes : 

" Towards evening, I walked over the bridge of 
the Dead River, a mile or two. There had just 
been a thunder-shower, but it had cleared off, and 
the evening was calm and beautiful. The woods had 
just put on their verdant livery, and it seemed as 
though the feathered race were holding some high 
festival, from the variety, richness, and vivacity of 



MEMORIAL. 31 

their song's. Perhaps they were complimenting the 
vegetable world on the new dress which it had re- 
ceived. And truly the compliment was merited, for 
everything was beautiful ; the tender foliage, the 
pure drops which the shower had left on every sprig, 
and which now reflected the last rays of the setting 
sun in all the colors of the rainbow, the rich perfume 
which was shed from every opening bud, all seemed 
to inspire happiness, and the animate part of creation 
seemed to have drunk in the inspiration. I, too, was 
happy, — - happier than I have been since I left the 
home of my youth ; for the scene reminded me of 
similar ones which I had enjoyed among our own 
dear native highlands." 

The following pleasant advice on reading is to his 
cousin C. : 

" You say that you have not read much except little 
books not tvorth mentioning ', since I left. I wonder 
what kind those are. I am afraid they mean novels. 
I am almost afraid that you don't like history quite 
so well as some other kind of reading. Do I guess 
right] I have noticed that we soon acquire a taste 
for whatever kind of reading we indulge in ; and for 
that reason it is of the first importance that the prin- 
cipal part of our reading should be such works as 
will be permanently useful to us. Perhaps you will 
say : c Such an idea comes with rather a poor grace 
from cousin J., who, I know, sometimes reads novels 
and other light reading, and who has even encouraged 
me to.' I admit it, but will try to mend in future ; 



32 MEMORIAL. 

not that I mean to promise to forsake light reading 
in toto, but I mean to read but very little of it, and 
a great amount of something more solid ; and I will 
do it, not merely for the sake of acquiring knowledge, 
but because I think it will make the mind more stable 
and active, better able to meet the stern realities of 
life, which, you will find by the time yon have arrived 
at my age, is not clothed in the beautiful garb in 
which fancy enrobes it." 

Mr. Fairbanks's agency in Maine soon made him 
familiar with the desirable business locations ; and in 
October of this year (1833) he established himself 
at Waterville, in the manufacture of ploughs, at the 
same time acting as a local agent for selling the 
scales manufactured by his brothers. It was his 
design to make this place his permanent residence, 
and to identify himself with its interests. 

In his Memoranda he says : " In establishing my- 
self here, the only satisfaction I find is in complying 
with the requests of my friends. If I had followed my 
own inclinations, I should have sought for business 
in the growing and flourishing parts cf our country 
at the West, where my labors would probably have 
been altogether more productive, and permitted a 
speedier return to my mountain home. But my lot 
is cast here, and here must I remain for the present. 
My prayer to God shall daily be : Make me useful 
to my associates, and preserve the lives of my beloved 
parents and dear friends, that I may yet spend many 
happy days with them." 



MEMORIAL. S3 

He soon became active in the religious society with 
which he was connected, and did much to promote 
its prosperity. As it was feeble, he contributed lib- 
erally for its support. The pastors who were con- 
nected with the church during his residence at Water- 
ville speak with much emphasis of his consistent 
Christian example and of his efforts to sustain the 
society. 

The following letter, dated May 7? 1835, was 
written to his friend A., then in Paris, pursuing 
his medical studies. The admirable felicity with which 
it introduces an important contemplated event in his 
life will not escape notice. " I almost envy you the 
privilege, friend A., of treading the soil which is hal- 
lowed by so many historical associations, which has 
been so often drenched in blood ; the arena on which 
a Hannibal, a Caesar, and a Napoleon have performed 
their exploits ; the very city in which has lived a 
Francis, a Louis XIV., a Richelieu. Were it not 
that I have got entangled in business to too great an 
extent to leave, I would gladly join you at the end 
of your three years' course, and match my pedestrian 
abilities with yours for a ' tour of the Continent/ 
Right well should I like to visit with you the towering 
Alps, the land which is governed by the wily Met- 
ternich, the fair vales of Italy, the classic soil of 
Greece, the land of the Nile, etc. A dull companion, 
I presume, you would find me, but better than none 
in a strange land ; and while you were finding more 
fitting associates in Geneva, I would climb Mont 

5 



34 MEMORIAL. 

Blanc. We could tread the Simplon together; and 
while you were regaling yourself with the literati of 
Florence and Rome, I could be gratifying my curiosity 
by viewing the remains of Roman architecture. What 
do you say — will you accept of me for a companion \ 
But, by the way, I have just thought that before that 
time I shall have another objection, and I suppose my 
early and bosom friend is entitled to know all. To 
tell the truth, a certain little blind boy, very expert 
with the bow, has been playing the mischief with me* 
in my declining years. He has wounded me deeply, 
and I fear fatally, but has recommended a remedy 
which is considered a perfect cure. I hate all medi- 
cines, and of course you may well guess with how 
much horror I view the prescription, when I inform 
you that it is what all good bachelors, like you and 
myself, hold in such utter abhorrence; it is — it is — 
matrimony. Yes, friend A., this is the only remedy, 
and I am advised to make trial of it within four 
weeks. So you see the jig is up as to my travelling 
in foreign lands." 

The contemplated event alluded to took place in 
June, 1835. He was united in marriage to Miss 
Almira Taylor, daughter of Capt. James Taylor, of 
Derry, N. H. 

An extract from a letter to the same friend to 
whom his intended marriage is so pleasantly an- 
nounced above, written five years after that event, 
shows how he valued the relation he had formed : 
u What little time I can steal from business, I spend 



MEMORIAL. 85 

in the bosom of the dearest of families, consisting of 
the same individuals which composed it when you 
were here. There is a satisfaction, dear A., in having 
a home which one can feel to be his own, and friends 
— a friend whose happiness is wholly identified with 
his, a family looking to him for protection, and doing 
all in their power to promote his welfare. With such 
a home, though a humble one, and such a family, 
together with a reasonable supply of books, I candidly 
acknowledge that there is far more of the sunshine 
of life on my pilgrimage than when I trod the weary 
pathway alone." 

The following humorous letter was written to his 
wife while on a visit to her father's : 

" St. Johnsbury, Caledonia County, State of Vermont, 

" 9th mo., 26th day. 

" J. P. Fairbanks to his affectionate Consort sendeth 
Greeting : 
" It becometh us, while performing the pilgrimage 
of life, carefully to note the scenes through which we 
pass, and to draw instruction from them and from 
their causes, which will be profitable to us on our 
journey. It also becomes us to look back through 
the generations which have gone before us, and care- 
fully note the paths in which they have trodden ; and 
when we arrive at a point where some one, in ages 
which have joined the ocean of past years, has made 
some new and important discovery, it is proper that 
we trace out the effects which have resulted from it ; 



86 MEMORIAL. 

and also that we pause and carefully note those rocks 
and hidden shoals on which any unfortunate pilgrim 
may have made shipwreck. These reflections are 
suggested hy important events which have lately 
transpired in this great city and its suburbs, as well 
as by the medium by which I communicate them to 
you. 

" Writing, as you very well know, dearest wife, is 
a very ancient and honorable method of communica- 
tion between separated friends, and a method which 
has been adopted by nations who are in any degree 
civilized, for four thousand years, in transmitting im- 
portant documents in regard to state affairs. Formerly, 
before the invention of letters, people were in the 
habit of transmitting information by means of hiero- 
glyphics ; and this practice is still continued among 
those nations who are more anxious to teach their 
children how to shoot their arrows, than to teach their 
' young ideas how to shoot ' (Pope, or Milton, or some 
one else, I believe, uses this most elegant phrase, which 
is preserved through the medium of that most noble, 
venerable, and useful invention, letters). But most 
nations, as I said before, have adopted this most 
valuable invention. And if we analyze and trace 
back the use of letters, it will probably be found that 
we have derived the use from the English, the English 
from the Romans, the Romans from the Grecians 
(a very ancient people), and the Grecians, as near 
as can be ascertained, from Cadmus, a Phoenician. 
Therefore, dearest, we must exercise due gratitude 



MEMORIAL. 87 

to this same Mr. Cadmus, for his kind offices to us, 
in common with all the rest of mankind who have 
enjoyed this inestimahle privilege of writing. But the 
idea is suggested : ' Where did Cadmus, Esq., find 
them V Did he find them hid in a side-hill, like the 
Mormon Bible 1 Or was phrenology, that most sub- 
lime science, more fully developed then than now, and 
were, the bumps on his head in the shape of letters 1 
Or was the mysterious science of animal magnetism 
so highly refined that he could tell what tvoald be 
in future, as its disciples can now tell what is beyond 
the reach of their senses \ I must confess I am 
deeply puzzled. But my supper is ready, and with 
your consent we will defer the further consideration 
of the subject for the present. 

" After coffee. — We will resume our subject and 
make the application. It is by the aid of the afore- 
said art introduced into Greece by Mr. Cadmus, (I 
have not been able to learn the gentleman's Christian 
name, if he had any, of which there appears to be 
some doubt,) that I am able to convey to you the 
following gratifying intelligence : 

" Firstly, — We are all well, and hope these lines 
will find you enjoying the same blessing. Secondly, — 
Sundry of our good friends and relations from the 
country are now in this city, viz., cousin M. H., 
M. J., C. M., etc. The three first, together with 
aunt A., will visit at mother's, to-morrow, — an honor 
of which you would have been the recipient had 
you been here. Fourthly, Fifthly, and Sixthly, — On 



38 MEMOKIAL. 

Saturday last, Mr. and Mrs. became the parents 

of a fine young lady, who has taken lodgings in her 
father's family for the present. Tenthly, — I was 
much disappointed in receiving no letter from you 
this day, and shall wait with impatience for the next 
mail. If anything occurs between this time and that, 
worthy of note, I will give a faithful relation thereof. 

" Adieu, dearest wife. 

" Sept. £7- — Not a word from dear A. to-day. 
I almost fear to send my nonsense, for fear it may 
find some of you sick." 

For a few years after his marriage Mr. Fairbanks 
resided a part of the time at St. Johnsbury, and a 
part at Waterville, Me., he having become associated 
with his brothers, and the business at the two places 
being conducted as a joint partnership. But it was 
his conviction that their business required that one of 
the company should reside at Waterville. Although 
such a step was a great self-denial to him, he made 
arrangements to reside there permanently, and erected 
for himself a convenient dwelling-house. 

The following extract from a letter (April, 1838) 
to his cousin C, then at the South, relates to his in- 
tended removal : 

"It is true, dear C, that we are going to remove 
our residence to Waterville, and I must say that one 
of our deepest regrets is the thought of losing the 
companionship of yourself and our dear aunt. It is 
true we feel very unhappy when we think of leaving 



MEMORIAL- 39 

the society of our brothers, sisters, and parents ; but 
we have associated so much with you, and under such 
peculiar circumstances, that we have considered you 
equally dear, and the separation from you equally painful. 
Perhaps, however, we may sometime return to spend 
the evening of our days among our own Green Moun- 
tains ; for I think no place on earth will seem so much 
like home as our own Verd Monts ; and here, above 
all places, would I wish to spend my days, if it were 
consistent, with the friends of my childhood and early 
life, surrounded with all the sweet associations of 
youth. The thought, however, that we shall be kindly 
remembered by yourself and our other dear friends, 
in our absence, will be no small gratification to us ; 
and when we imagine ourselves peeping in upon your 
cousin parties, or your sweet firesides, and hear you 
speaking of cousins Joseph and Almira, just as we 
have talked of you this winter, we shall enjoy an 
intercourse as near and as real as can be afforded 
by animal magnetism itself. And when we look 
upon the bright evening star, and consider that its 
brilliant beams are shed down with equal lustre upon 
St. Johnsbury, and that some of our friends there 
may be deriving pleasure from beholding it at the 
same time, we shall consider that we have an inter- 
course of spirits, even though bodily distant. The 
thought, too, that when we kneel in prayer to our 
kind and merciful God, your prayer may be at the 
same time raised to the same Being, will give us 



40 MEMORIAL. 

But, notwithstanding Mr. Fairbanks's decision and 
arrangements to establish himself permanently at 
Waterville, the reconsideration of all his plans was 
a few months after forced upon him. The business 
at St. Johnsbury had become so extensive and was 
so rapidly increasing, and so strong was the desire 
of his brothers to have him associated directly with 
themselves, that it was proposed to him to give up 
the branch of business at Waterville, and settle per- 
manently at St. Johnsbury. 

An extract from a letter to his brothers, May 25, 
1839, indicates his views and feelings on the sub- 
ject : 

" I thought my arrangements about removing were 
what the business required. It was not for the purpose 
of being more eligibly situated myself, for I should 
not be ; but seeing a third part of our capital and 
business here, and being thoroughly acquainted with 
it, and knowing that it needed the personal at- 
tention of one of us more than the business at St. 
Johnsbury needed the attention of us all, I felt that 
it was my duty to be here. And I see nothing to 
alter my views in regard to the claims of our business 
here. I confess that I have some reluctance to alter 
plans which have been very deliberately formed, 
without any alteration of circumstances, giving my 
acquaintances reason to suppose that my conduct is 
governed more by a freak of fancy than by mature 
judgment. It seems to me that I should lose all 
character for stability and fixedness of purpose. Still, 



MEMORIAL. 41 

I am desirous of being situated where I can be most 
useful ; and if it is the deliberate conviction of both 
of you, that, all things considered, it would be best 
for me to remain at St. Johnsbury, I would yield 
my judgment to yours, and relinquish my design of 
removing here. I submit the whole facts in the case 
for your consideration, and shall abide your decision, 
if you do not place me in a situation where I shall be 
exposed to public derision." 

After many struggles on his part, the decision was 
made in accordance with the proposal of his brothers ; 
and in the autumn of 1839, he settled at St. Johns- 
bury. But so great was his reluctance to go through 
the process of another change in business, and so 
sensitive was he to any appearance of instability of 
purpose, that, after the plan of suspending their opera- 
tions at Waterville was agreed upon, he never returned 
there to close his business, but employed a suitable 
person to do this for him. 

Mr. Fairbanks's permanent settlement at St. Johns- 
bury placed him in a more favorable position, both for 
the improvement of his mind and the fuller develop- 
ment of his energies. The extensive business in 
which he is now engaged brings new and increased 
responsibilities upon him. Their operations are not 
confined to the routine which goes on under their own 
immediate inspection ; these are complicated, running 
out into channels in every direction, extending to all 
parts of the country, and even to foreign lands. 
Agencies and sub-agencies at all important points 

6 



42 MEMORIAL. 

became necessary; and these must be superintended 
with care, and not unfrequently visited and examined. 
In these responsibilities Mr. Fairbanks bore his full 
share, conducting a very extensive correspondence, and 
superintending most of the operations abroad. These 
duties required activity and enterprise, and served to 
develop and give completeness to his character. The 
extent of his business allowed him but little time for 
any systematic course of study ; but yet, feeling him- 
self now established for life, he began to collect a 
library of valuable books, and " what little time he 
could steal from business," after meeting the claims 
of his family, Jie devoted to careful reading and study. 
The scraps of time which he could thus command 
were always sacredly used. He rarely sat down with- 
out a book, taking one which he was reading in 
course, and not wasting his efforts on any one* that 
was at hand. What he read he made his own, not 
by a mere act of memory, but by thoroughly digest- 
ing it. By his careful manner of reading and study- 
ing he at length gained great facility in acquiring 
the thoughts of an author ; and when once asked 
how he could read with such rapidity, he replied that 
he read the thoughts and not the mere words of the 
writer. 

For several years after his permanent settlement at 
St. Johnsbury Mr. Fairbanks's course of life was quite 
uniform. His unaffected modesty and self-distrust, as 
well as the claims of business, kept him from mingling 
much in public affairs. But all the while there was a 



MEMORIAL. 43 

steady growth of power and influence. His field of 
vision was constantly extending, new spheres of use- 
fulness Dresented themselves, and with them new 
motives for effort. 

In 1843, he united with his brothers in establishing 
the St. Johnsbury Academy, an institution which has 
always ranked high among those of a similar character. 
Its plan and general features represented the combined 
views of the three brothers. The document contain- 
ing the principles on which the institution was founded 
and by which it was to be regulated, was drawn up 
by the subject of this sketch, and indicates, on the 
part of the founders, just and discriminating views of 
education, as well as a pious regard for the moral and 
religious influences which should prevail in it. 

The following are extracts from this document : 

" First. To make the course of study pursued in 
the school a means of thorough intellectual discipline, — 
such discipline as will develop the capacities of the 
student, and make him acquainted with himself. Such 
training can only be accomplished by a continued 
systematic course of study, in which whatever is un- 
dertaken shall be thoroughly investigated and under- 
stood before it is dismissed. 

" And believing that no system of education can be 
successful which does not recognize the paramount 
importance of the Christian religion, and that no 
course of intellectual training in a public seminary 
can fully develop the mental powers of the pupil 
and fit him for usefulness, unless its ethics are 
founded on Divine Revelation, — 



44 MEMORIAL. 

" Therefore it is hereby further enjoined upon the 
aforesaid Trustees and their successors in office that 
they adopt measures : 

" Secondly, to make the institution a school of 
moral and religious instruction, — such instruction as 
contemplates the student's relation to a future state, 
and aims to secure his qualifications for it, in the 
cultivation of right affections and the conversion of 
the heart. 

" By religious instruction is not intended the incul- 
cation of a sectarian creed, but that the fundamental 
doctrines of the Bible be taught, and the great duties 
of faith and repentance be urged upon the attention 
of the school." 



V. 



In 1845, Mr. Fairbanks was chosen to represent 
his town in the State Legislature. In this new sphere 
he was active and influential. As Chairman of the 
Committee to whom was referred so much of the 
President's Message as related to Slavery and the 
Mexican War, he drew up an elaborate Report, accom- 
panied by appropriate resolutions ; he also prepared a 
valuable paper on the duty of the Legislature to take 
more efficient measures to promote the cause of Tem- 
perance. But his special efforts- were devoted to 
measures for the improvement of Common Schools. 
His attention had for some years previous been 
directed to the cause of education. He was fully 
aware of the defects of the common schools of his 
State, the want of interest among the people generally, 
the want of qualification on the part of teachers, and 
the absence of any system which might give character 
and efficiency to the course of instruction. And yet 
he was confident, in view of results elsewhere, that 
measures might be adopted which would correct 
existing evils, and make the schools of greater value 
to the community. 

With these views and impressions, he introduced 
before the Legislature a bill " For the Improvement of 



46 MEMOEIAL. 

Common Schools." By some this was received with 
indifference, by others with direct opposition ; but 
when the benefits which might result from it to the 
State were fully presented, it was passed and became 
a law. 

But Mr. Fairbanks's labors and anxieties did not 
end here ; they had but begun. The law was to be 
tested by its practical workings. Obstacles were to 
be removed, prejudice and indifference to be corrected. 
The people must be made to feel that the increased 
expense, however small, contemplated by the new law, 
was more than repaid by the improved condition of 
their schools, and the more systematic and thorough 
instruction of their children. In effecting these objects 
Mr. Fairbanks, with other friends of education, labored 
with great earnestness and wisdom. His influence 
was exerted in a variety of channels, sometimes seen 
and recognized, but oftener the hand that gave the 
first impulse was undetected. He corresponded with 
the friends of education in different parts of the State, 
suggesting his own views in regard to particular 
measures, and asking their cooperation. He did 
much in promoting Educational Conventions in the 
different counties, and in recommending a State 
Association, at which the different views entertained 
on the various subjects of education might be pre- 
sented by gentlemen from all parts of the State. 

Mr. Fairbanks's anxieties, watchfulness, and labors 
for the interest of the schools will be better under- 
stood by a few extracts from his letters to the late 



MEMORIAL. 47 

Governor Eaton, for several years Superintendent of 
Schools under the new law. 

" The cause in which we are laboring I fully be- 
lieve is progressing. The teachers are becoming very 
much interested in the improvement of their schools ; 
and if we can only reach the parents, the mass of the 
community, the work will be very far advanced. It 
is unaccountable, that, while the sentiment is so prev- 
alent that the education of the masses is essential, 
there should at the same time be so little feeling on 
the subject. There is a moving of the waters, how- 
ever, of which we have occasional evidence. In this 
neighborhood there have been arrangements made this 
winter for erecting three large school-houses. Meet- 
ings have been held in various districts for the pur- 
pose of awakening a deeper interest among parents. 
Although there are many discouraging circumstances 
to be encountered, owing to the unpardonable apathy 
on the part of the community, yet we have much to 
encourage us to persevere, and I trust a brighter day 
is dawning." 

The following letter shows Mr. Fairbanks's tact in 
enlisting the best influences in support of the object 
for which he and the other friends of education in his 
State were laboring : 

" I write to inquire whether any arrangements have 
been made for any meeting of the County Superin- 
tendents this fall, or whether there is any provision 
for exercises at the meeting of the Society for the 
Improvement of Common Schools. If none has been 



48 MEMORIAL. 

made, I wish to suggest an object which it appears to 
me very desirable to obtain ; whether anything can be 
accomplished at that meeting you can judge. 

" I have noticed that the great mass of our people 
are in the habit of adopting the opinions of a few of 
our leading and prominent men, on all the more im- 
portant subjects of general public interest. As our 
Senators and Representatives in Congress, our Judges, 
the Faculties of our Colleges, our Governors, etc., think 
on these prominent subjects, so will the people think ; 
and when these leading individuals are united in their 
views, they stamp an indelible impression on the public 
mind, and the degree of interest they manifest on any 
given subject will be reciprocated by the people. For 
this reason it appears to me very important to secure, 
if possible, the active influence of these prominent 
individuals, in aid of the cause of common school 
education. Their assistance in awakening a general 
interest in this all-important cause would be very 
effective if it could be enlisted ; and it seems to me 
absolutely necessary. If the people see those to whom 
they are in the habit of looking for an expression of 
opinion inactive or indifferent, they will not rightly 
appreciate the importance of the subject, and will not 
become interested themselves. 

" If it is desirable to enlist the aid of such persons, 
it becomes a question how it may be done. I have 
noticed that the most effectual way of awakening an 
interest in such subjects on the part of individuals is 
to impose some specific duty on them ; and after once 



MEMORIAL. 49 

putting their hand to the work, they become interested 
and disposed to take the lead in carrying forward the 
object. If this is the case, how would it answer to 
propose a meeting of the Society a week before the 
session of the Legislature, to occupy two days, and 
assign subjects to quite a number of our public men, 
requesting them to give their views in writing at such 
meeting, occupying not over half an hour each, and 
affording another half-hour succeeding each disserta- 
tion for free discussion % If one subject was assigned 
to Judge C, another to President W., another to 
Professor T., another to Judge R., etc., would they 
not be induced to attend the meeting, and give their 
views as requested % and if so, would not a very useful 
influence be exerted in awakening an interest in the 
public % If such a meeting was held, perhaps Mr. 
Mann or Professor H. would attend, if requested by 
yourself. 

" If anything is done, a movement should be made 
at once, so as to give some time for preparation ; and 
it appears to me very desirable that something should 
be done, or our whole system will be in danger." 

Time discloses some friction in the working of the 
system, and his interest in the cause leads him to 
suggest means for securing better and more marked 
results. 

" I have for some time thought of addressing you 
in relation to certain subjects connected with our school 
system ; but a want of time on my own part, and an 
apprehension that I might encroach upon your time 



30 MEMORIAL. 

unwarrantably, has deterred me. The deep interest 
which I feel in the subject I hope will be regarded as 
a sufficient excuse for mentioning a few suggestions. 

" There has been, most unquestionably, an improve- 
ment in our schools under the operation of our system 
thus far ; and perhaps, considering the state of things 
when it was adopted, it was as good a plan as could 
be devised, and has been as judiciously carried out 
as the circumstances would admit. But we cannot 
remain stationary. If we are not advancing, we shall 
be receding. Our movements must be aggressive, 
and the community must be awakened and kept awake 
on this subject, or the busy opponents of the system 
will instil into the minds of the people the idea that 
it is doing no good, and is a useless expense. It is 
only by energetic and active exertions that we can 
maintain our foothold, or make headway. Prudence 
and discretion, it is true, are requisite ; but every 
well-chosen step we take in advance, strengthens and 
enlarges our field of operations, and lessens the sphere 
of opposition. 

" The extreme difficulty of securing the right men 
for County Superintendents leads me to apprehend that 
we cannot make progress under our present system. 
I do not know how it is on your side of the mountain, 
but on this side, we must expect for the year to come 
tbat all judicious effort will cease, and that the cause 
will actually retrograde. 

" Under these circumstances I can see no hope of 
sustaining our cause, unless some further compensa- 



MEMORIAL. 51 

tion can be secured to the State Superintendent, so 
as to enable him to visit the different counties, and 
spend several days in each, — holding public meetings 
in the different parts of the county, and meeting and 
consulting with the County and Town Superintendents. 
If several meetings were held by the State Superin- 
tendent in each county, they might be so arranged 
that none of the inhabitants w r ould be required to 
travel more than eight or ten miles to attend them ; 
and a visit from that officer would be pretty sure to call 
out a good attendance, waking up something of the 
general interest in the cause that Mr. Mann has so suc- 
cessfully excited in Massachusetts. It would also afford 
him an opportunity to communicate his plans, and give 
directions to the County and Town Superintendents 
and teachers, and thus secure a far more uniform 
operation of the system than now exists. It would 
likewise enable him to learn more perfectly the state 
of the schools, and to get more satisfactory statisti- 
cal returns ; and altogether the plan would infuse an 
energy into the system and a progressive movement 
which is now so desirable, and without which we shall 
inevitably, I fear, lose ground. The plan appears to 
me exceedingly desirable, and is so regarded by many 
of the warmest friends of education with whom I have 
conversed. Whether it is practicable or not, I do 
not know ; but I believe that in our present state of 
progress we shall meet with better success by acting 
aggressively, than we shall by simply endeavoring 
to hold with a feeble and hesitating grasp what we 
have already obtained." 



52 MEMORIAL. 

Again on this subject he writes : 

" I believe that the cause needs and demands the 
whole time and energies of the most talented and 
experienced man in the State. I think the community 
is now prepared for an effort, and what is especially 
needed is an active, vigorous appeal in every part 
of the State to break the death-like apathy which has 
so long prevailed. At no period has the prospect 
been more favorable for an onward movement ; but 
it needs a strong hand and firm heart to put the 
ball in motion, and zeal and labor to increase the 
momentum from year to year." 

The following reply to Governor Eaton, as to the 
place of holding one of the Institutes, indicates the 
care with which Mr. Fairbanks guarded against 
everything which might prejudice the interests of the 
school system : 

" In regard to the place, there are some reasons 
why it should be held in some other town rather 
than here. There is in this region, as well as else- 
where, much opposition to our educational movements ; 
and as most of the measures which have been adopted 
have originated here, there is a jealousy and prejudice 
in relation to any movements of this character which 
have reference to our place." 

As an auxiliary for the advancement of the cause 
of education, Ci The School Journal" was started. 
This was done chiefly by the aid and counsel of Mr. 
Fairbanks, with the hearty cooperation of other friends 
of education, especially the late Governor Eaton. At 



MEMORIAL. 58 

first it was supposed that a work of this kind could 
not be sustained in Vermont alone, and it was in 
contemplation to circulate some Journal of Education 
published in one of the neighboring States. But after 
various propositions, and a long correspondence on 
the subject, Mr. Fairbanks made an arrangement with 
publishers in Vermont, by which he became personally 
responsible for a thousand copies, and obligated him- 
self to make up any deficiency in the expenses of 
publication to the amount of two hundred dollars. 
On this assurance the paper was started. But he did 
not remit his exertions when this was done ; he con- 
tributed liberally to its pages, and used his influence 
to induce others to furnish contributions. 

The following extracts from letters of Mr. Fairbanks 
to Governor Eaton will indicate the interest he felt 
in circulating among the people information on educa- 
tional subjects, as well as his agency in originating 
and starting " The School Journal " : 

" I have had some correspondence with Mr. S. S. 
Randall, of Albany, editor of fc The New York School 
Journal,' in regard to furnishing us with that period- 
ical. He proposes, if it could be circulated generally 
in the State, to change the title to ' The New York 
and Vermont District School Journal.' I have sub- 
scribed for a hundred copies for this county, and shall 
try to get a few into each town. I suppose it will be 
out of the question to sustain a periodical in our own 
State alone. It has appeared to me that there would 
be many advantages resulting from its circulation in 



54* MEMORIAL. 

this State. It would render our people familiar with 
the operation of a system very similar to our own. 
It would enable us to profit by their experience in 
arranging and carrying out the details of our plan. 
It would make us acquainted with movements and 
operations of a large, intelligent, and experienced 
corps of County Superintendents, and other officers 
connected with their system. It would be holding 
up the subject of common school improvement before 
the great body of our people, and engaging their 
attention more effectually than could be done in any 
other way through the press. Our teachers would 
gladly obtain some work of this kind, if within their 
reach; and it would afford a medium of communica- 
tion for reports of various movements now in progress 
in our State to improve the schools." 
Again, December 7> 1846, he writes : 
" 1 have had some conversation with people in this 
vicinity, in regard to publishing a periodical for the 
State, of the size of ' The New York District School 
Journal,' to be devoted, one half to the improvement 
of common schools, and one half to agriculture. 
To effect our object we must use every effort to reach 
the masses. Multitudes will not come out to lectures, 
nor visit the schools ; and it is desirable to throw- 
something into their houses. These, for the most part, 
are farmers — perhaps nine tenths ; and the union 
of the two objects in one paper might secure the 
reading of the topics in relation to schools, when they 
could be reached in no other way." 



MEMORIAL. 55 

" Dec. 26, 1846. 

" How would it answer to get out one number 
as a specimen, and send it over the State, with a 
prospectus 1 If that course could be adopted and 
would be expedient, I would be at the expense of 
getting it printed, and trust to the success of the 
enterprise for reimbursement. Indeed, if the project 
can be carried into effect, I would agree to make up 
any deficiency to the amount of one or two hundred 
dollars, which might be lost in the undertaking if it 
did not prove successful." 

"Feb. 23, 1847. 

" Your favor of the 2d instant has been received. 
Just before its reception, I made a proposition to 
Messrs. Bishop and Tracy, of the ' Vermont Chronicle,' 
that, if they would undertake the publication of the 
periodical in question, on their own responsibility, and 

furnish it to subscribers at per year, I would 

guarantee a thousand paying subscribers in the three 
northeastern counties ; and if it failed to remunerate 
them, I would make up any deficiency, not exceeding 
two hundred dollars, for one year. In reply they say, 
etc I have written them that their prop- 
osition will be accepted. If you should not approve 
of the plan thus far matured, please advise me. 

" In regard to editing it myself, if I were capable 
of doing it suitably, I suppose it would be out of my 
power to devote the time to it. The plan of having 
an association to defray the expense would be desirable, 
as it would secure a greater number who would feel 



56 MEMORIAL. 

an interest in its circulation ; but as I have previously 
made the proposition as before stated, I could not very 
appropriately ask others to come into an arrangement 
to relieve me." 

The first number of the Journal was published in 
May, 1847; it was well conducted, containing much 
valuable information, many practical principles and 
suggestions on the subjects of Education and Agri- 
culture. 

Between Mr. Fairbanks and Governor Eaton, to 
whom the above letters were addressed, there was 
a very free and somewhat frequent correspondence 
on the various topics relating to the advancement of 
elementary education. Each conferred with the other 
in regard to adopting any important measures, and 
each freely expressed to the other his own views or 
suggestions. Governor Eaton evidently had great 
confidence in Mr. Fairbanks's judgment. In one of 
his letters he says : " I cannot give up the privilege 
of asking your advice on all important questions per- 
taining to the administration of our school system, 
although I sometimes fear that I shall make myself 
burdensome." And in another letter he says : " I 
follow my habitual inclination to consult you on all 
important business relating to the interests of our 
common schools." 

Mr. Fairbanks's correspondence with Governor 
Eaton indicates that he watched with anxious solici- 
tude the operation of every measure adopted for 
the improvement of the schools in the State. His 



MEMORIAL. 57 

mind was fertile in devising plans to prevent or soften 
prejudices, and to awaken interest on the subject 
among superintendents, teachers, and parents. No 
view can be given of the depth of his interest, and the 
extent of his labors to promote the good of the schools, 
except by the careful reading of the entire correspond- 
ence with Governor Eaton, of which but a very small 
part is here given. 

In the autumn of 1851, the political influence of 
the State came into the hands of a new party. This 
revolution brought into the Legislature an unusually 
large number opposed to the school law. Though 
the law had never been intended as a party measure, 
and every effort had been made to divest it of such 
an aspect, still it met with strong opposition from the 
party now in power. Accordingly, when the Senate 
proposed a joint session to appoint a Superintendent 
of Schools, the House of Representatives declined to 
meet the Senate for this purpose. In this way the 
State was left without a Superintendent of Schools, 
and the school law became inoperative. This was a 
heavy blow to Mr. Fairbanks ; it was not the defeat 
of any private ends or ambitious schemes that affected 
him, but he saw all the efforts for the improvement 
of education defeated for the present, and that there 
was danger of the schools relapsing into their former 
condition. His strong feeling with reference to this 
state of things is indicated by a single sentence in a 
letter to a prominent friend of education in the State : 
" I have so loved Vermont, and felt so proud of her 

8 



58 MEMORIAL. 

reputation wherever I have travelled in other parts 
of the Union, that I can hardly endure the thought of 
her degradation." 

Though he feels thus keenly the defeat of his cher- 
ished plans, he looks upon the result as the ordeal 
through which all desirable objects must pass before 
success is attained. In a letter to a friend, after 
alluding" to the narrow views which had made the 
school law invalid, he says : 

" Still, in looking at the progress of other objects 
for the moral and intellectual improvement of the 
community, we notice the same fluctuation ; and when 
through the operation of adverse influences they have 
receded, a steady application of effort has gradually 
recovered the ground that was lost, and in the end 
we have gained even a more advantageous position. 
And if we now lie down and relax our efforts to push 
this cause forward, will not those who oppose any 
specific improvements in the educational system have 
the ear of the public, and make such use of their 
advantage as to prevent any favorable action of the 
Legislature next fall I Before anything can be effected 
to advance the cause, must there not be a great 
amount of labor performed, by the way of diffusing 
information and operating on public sentiment]" 

Unwilling to leave any means untried that might 
advance the cause of education, Mr. Fairbanks, soon 
after it was known that the Legislature would not 
appoint a Superintendent of Schools, prepared a cir- 
cular, which was sent to the friends of education in 



MEMORIAL. 59 

different parts of the State, requesting their coopera- 
tion in carrying forward the object by private con- 
tributions. This circular was well received, as the 
many replies to the author indicate, (it having been 
signed by every gentleman to whom it was sent, 
with a single exception) ; still, owing to the disturbed 
state of feeling on the general subject, but little was 
accomplished in the way contemplated. 

Even after these efforts and failures, Mr. Fairbanks 
did not abandon the cause. He corresponded with 
the friends of education in regard to bringing the 
whole subject before the people, and the best means 
of awakening new interest in it. He selected a can- 
didate of high qualifications for the office of Superin- 
tendent, hoping that the Legislature of the next year 
would fill that office. And when the candidate did 
not think the salary fixed by the State sufficient, Mr. 
Fairbanks generously offered to pay him two hundred 
dollars a year in addition, as long as he should hold 
the place. This was the second instance in which he 
had made this offer for the purpose of securing men 
of the best qualifications for so responsible a position. 
But the Legislature of 1852, like that of the previous 
year, refused to go into an election of Superintendent, 
and this plan also was defeated. 

Though the plans for the improvement of the schools 
thus failed, and the hopes of those who were seeking 
to elevate the people were disappointed, and though 
some of the earliest and most devoted friends of the 
cause died before they saw the first dawnings of a 



60 MEMORIAL. 

brighter day, the efforts made were not lost ; the time 
for gathering the richest fruit was only delayed. 
Good had been done, though the progress had been 
for a while checked. The discussion of the subject, 
the conflict of opposing views, the general diffusion 
of information on the condition of the schools and 
what they might be, and the educational organizations 
in different parts of the State at which many of the 
people gathered, had made education a topic of prom- 
inent interest, and had caused it to take so deep a hold 
of the minds of teachers and the truest friends of the 
people that no adverse influences could destroy what 
had been done. And it is not too much to say that 
the present efficient system by which the schools of 
the State are conducted, in part owes its existence and 
success to the effort and the toil of previous years. 

A friend of Mr. Fairbanks, now a member of the 
Board of Education, writes : " Could he have lived 
till now, his heart would rejoice over the great ad- 
vances that have taken place in the common schools 
of Vermont within six or eight years." 



VI. 



In the latter part of 1847, business interests re- 
quired Mr. Fairbanks to visit the island of Cuba. As 
this was a longer journey than any he had taken, it is 
not surprising that there was deep feeling and anxiety 
in his quiet home the morning he left. As the Scrip- 
tures were read at the devotions of the family, the 
utterance of one voice after another was choked with 
emotion, till his alone was heard in the service. During 
his absence he wrote frequent letters to his family, and 
ten long communications to the "Vermont Chronicle." 
From both of these some extracts will here be made, 
illustrating the closeness of his observation, his dili- 
gence in gathering up and communicating whatever 
was striking or valuable, as well as other features of 
his character. The following extract was written to 
his family, December 8, 1847, from Boston, but ac- 
cidentally dated St. Johnsbury : 

" I suppose before the birds and flowers visit you 
again I shall often look back to this place, or any 
other spot in New England, as home, though not 
exactly St. Johnsbury. It is not, however, because 
I feel just at home now, that I accidentally dated 
my letter at St. J., though I have something of the 
same disposition to linger on New England soil that 



62 MEMORIAL. 

I experienced in regard to our own loved hearth. I 
have been upon the jump almost all the time since 
I reached the city, and have now got my business so 
arranged that I can probably leave for New York to- 
morrow night. 

" I have been filling up the trunk to return to you, 
and will give you a little inventory of parcels, so far 
as I can remember them. In the first place, the 
hood. After visiting a dozen stores without being 
satisfied, I concluded to buy the highest priced one, 
and run the risk of its being the one you wanted. I 
first selected one that had blue facing, but I remem- 
bered that you were not partial to blue ; so I selected 
another, and concluded to send both if I could get 
them at a discount ; but the shopkeeper would not 
make the discount I thought right, so to be revenged 
on her I concluded to take but one. In the next place, 
the dress. After sundry inquiries I called at H. and 
Ws., and inquired for a winter dress, suitable for a 
lady thirty years old. Well, they wanted to know 
what kind ; and I told them that I had called on them 
to find out. I calculated that they knew a great deal 
better than I did what I wanted. They said they had 
calico of all kinds, muslin-de-laines, plain, spotted, 
figured, striped, plaid, worsted and cotton mixed, 
etc., etc. I then inquired the prices, and they rattled 
them off all the way from ten cents to two dollars. 
The thibet cloths were the dearest, and I supposed, 
therefore, the best ; so I went up-stairs to select, and 
there I found them of every possible shade, from black 



MEMORIAL. 63 

to white, and as I thought I had seen you wear some 
light-colored dresses, drab or something of that kind, 
I concluded that would be the nearest to what you 
would want, and purchased accordingly. You will 
also find a small bandbox containing two articles for 
you and C, designed as a barrier between you and 
the cold. I should have remembered M. in the same 
way, if she had not been supplied with a substitute. I 
also send a couple of spoons, which please send to 
mother for a Christmas present ; also two packages 
containing articles for the youngsters ; also a patent 
machine for making waffles, which I presume you will 
become skilful in the use of, before my return. Now 
if I only had Aladdin's lamp, I would spend a half 
hour with you and the other dear ones ; but as the 
genii do not render such supernatural assistance these 
days, I must only indulge the imagination with a short 
peep at you, and endure the dull reality of being a 
hundred and sixty miles distant." 

The following postscript relates to the articles sent 
for the " youngsters " : 

" My Dear Children : 

" I send you a few articles with which you can 
amuse yourselves this winter. I will ask two things 
of you : First, be careful of them and preserve them, 
so that I may find them all in good order on my 
return. Second, do not have any disputes with each 
other about using them. The one who will most 
willingly give up to the other will be the best boy, 



64 MEMORIAL. 

and I shall remember him when I come home. Now, 
if you wish to please me, remember what I have said, 
and do not he selfish." 

"Baltimore, Dec. 19. 

Ci Mr. F. and myself have been conversing about 
the sweet, quiet Sabbath of St. J., and have concluded 
that if there is anything that renders home peculiarly 
dear, it must be this. Certainly, if there is any one 
thing that most strongly reminds us of our absence 
from home, it is the restless and noisy confusion of a 
city Sabbath. Oh, how sweet it would be, if I could, 
like Burns's cotter, return every Saturday night to a 
dear, sweet home — to the embraces of a loved and 
dearly cherished family ! 

" My dear boys, I hope, are trying their best to 
merit the approbation of their father. I am glad to 
hear that W. is making good progress in his geogra- 
phy. Every time I hear that you have good lessons, 
it gives me much pleasure. Can you not learn again 
the Multiplication Table, or a part of it, this winter 1 
And perhaps you can learn to reckon a little too, so 
that you can tell how many apples you can buy for 
ten cents, if they cost two cents apiece. There are 
some tables also which E. can teach you, perhaps 
while you are at breakfast or dinner. Your little 
tumbler, I suppose, holds about a gill, and he will tell 
how many times full it will take to make a pint, and 
then how many pints will make a quart, and how 
many quarts a gallon, etc. I shall expect to hear from 



MEMORIAL- 65 

E. soon how he progresses with his studies ; but I 
want both of you to remember that I am even more 
desirous that you should be good boys, kind and 
gentle, true and generous, fearing and loving God, 
than that you should have good lessons. I shall 
hope to hear a good report from you by every 
letter." 

" Petersburg, Va., Dec. 24. 

Si As I shall be riding all day in the cars to-morrow, 
I shall venture to anticipate the expression of my 
Christmas wishes for my dear, very dear family ; and 
as embracing all, I do ardently desire that the blessings 
of a kind Providence may rest upon you. Here it is 
merry Christmas in a low sense of the phrase. It is 
the saturnalia of the blacks, and in the streets all is 
noise and rude mirth. This commences a brief period 
of their freedom. Through the holidays they have 
their time to themselves, and all expect presents from 
their masters or employers. But their training has 
fitted them only for the baser kinds of enjoyment ; and 
it is questionable if they are not far more happy when 
engaged in their usual tasks than when rioting in the 
temporary possession of freedom. 

" I have been trying to make it out that it is four 
weeks since I left you ; but with all my skill in 
reckoning, I can make it but three. Perhaps it is 
because the old year is getting infirm, and cannot 
travel very fast ; and if this is the case, when the 
new year comes in he may trip along faster." 

9 



66 MEMORIAL. 

Two days later he writes from Wilmington, North 
Carolina : 

" I don't know that I am one thousand miles from 
my cherished ones, hy the way the wild geese travel, 
but by the routes which I have come, I find it one 
thousand and sixty miles. 

66 1 left Petersburg, as I wrote you I should, about 
12 o'clock Friday night, and reached this place about 4 
p. m. yesterday, a distance of two hundred and twenty- 
five miles. Almost the whole distance is through a 
fiat country covered with pine forests, with here and 
there a little opening, and a few negro huts, but, with 
the exception of two or three small towns, not a half- 
dozen comfortable - looking habitations on the route. 
The gathering of turpentine is almost the sole employ- 
ment of the inhabitants, the pines being partly girdled 
to secure the annual flow. If the Dismal Swamp 
is as forbidding in proportion, it well deserves its 
name. To add to the dreariness of the scene, it rained 
incessantly ; and the grotesque efforts of the blacks to 
make Christmas go off merrily did not relieve the 
general gloom. For a little while, however, we were 
amused with the performances of a musical company, 
who had been out to attend a ball the night previous. 
One played the violin, one a rude guitar, and the 
other — I can hardly tell what. They made on the 
whole very good, or, at least, acceptable music, calling 
forth cheers from the passengers, and finally a liberal 
contribution, when they were dismissed to another car. 
Wilmington was all alive, when I reached here, with 



MEMORIAL. 67 

negroes, fireworks, guns, crackers, rockets, yelling, 
drinking, swearing, all one dire pell-mell confusion ; 
and it was fortunate for me that the loss of sleep 
the night previous threw me early into the arms of 
Morpheus. 

" In the afternoon I went to the Presbyterian place 
of worship, but found only a small school of about a 
dozen black children, which was dismissed soon after 
I entered, and I learned that the regular service was 
in the evening. I then walked on till I came to the 
Baptist Church, where the negroes were holding a 
service of their own. It consisted of singing, praying, 
and exhortation, — and such a meeting I never before 
witnessed. The singing was passable. One or two 
only could read, and they would give off two lines at 
a time, when all w T ould join in singing, accompanied 
with such gestures as would add force to the senti- 
ment. (I suppose J. H. P. would say: .'There is 
congregational singing for you.') The prayers were 
earnest, but sometimes several would begin at once, 
and continue till the superior strength of lungs of one 
would silence the rest. This exercise was accom- 
panied with slapping of hands on the part of the one 
leading, and constant amens and groanings on the 
part of the others. The scene was wild and exciting ; 
and while it was evident that there was much of mere 
excitement, there was doubtless some sincere piety ; 
and with their habits and manner of expressing their 
feelings, there might be as much real devotion as in 
many congregations where a greater degree of decorum 



68 MEMORIAL. 

is exhibited. While we have no occasion to thank 
God that we are not like other men, we have occa- 
sion to thank Him that we have been better taught, 
and that we have enjoyed such superior advantages. 
Perhaps E. and W. will turn to that little hymn : 

' I was not born a little slave/ 

as these people are, who are never permitted to 
learn to read. Oh, how much do I bless God that 
this was not your lot, when I see the misery and 
wretchedness that prevail here. The happiness of 
the slave has been extolled, but a great many are 
not — cannot be, happy ; their sunken, despairing 
looks show it. Happy, blessed New England ! would 
that all could share your peerless advantages, your 
true sources of happiness." 

From Charleston, South Carolina, he forwards 
the first of the " Letters from a Traveller" to the 
Chronicle, on New England character, railroads, and 
their influences, — the first, doubtless, suggested by 
the contrast of what he continually saw around him. 
A part of the letter is here given : 

" There is a buoyant energy in New England char- 
acter, which sends her sons into every nook and cor- 
ner of the globe on various adventures ; and yet very 
few leave her borders without a pang of regret, and 
seldom without the hope of, sooner or later, returning 
to her consecrated soil, to enjoy in quiet the fruit of 
their labors. Home in New England means far more 
than it does in most other places. The recollection 
of it brings out before the mind of the wanderer, not 



MEMORIAL. 69 

only the honored parents or beloved children, and the 
affectionate band of brothers and sisters, together with 
the old homestead in and around which the sunny 
hours of childhood and youth have flown by ; but 
linked with these are the cherished associations of 
school-days, the sober stillness of the New England 
Sabbath, the hallowed and tranquillizing influence of 
the sanctuary and the Sabbath school, and the attach- 
ments of a society through which equality and a com- 
mon sympathy prevail in an unusual degree. These 
influences united throw around New England homes 
a charm of peculiar power ; and it is not strange that 
few can break away from them without deep emotion, 
or cross the borders of their native State without 
many lingering, backward looks, as her mountains 
or rugged shores gradually fade from the view. But 
once embarked on the broad ocean of the world, the 
native energy and iron perseverance of the New 
Englander bears him onward with the force of des- 
tiny ; and in his various adventures, the satisfying 
of curiosity, and the information acquired, he finds 
much to compensate for the temporary sacrifice of 
home. 

" One cannot travel any considerable distance at the 
present day, without noticing the vast changes which 
have been effected and which are still in progress, 
through the agency of railroads. They are chang- 
ing the whole condition of the country, setting in 
motion new currents, bringing into market the treas- 
ures and productions of the earth which had previously 



70 MEMORIAL. 

been valueless, and augmenting in proportion the 
value of lands yielding these products ; building up 
new places of business ; increasing beyond all calcu- 
lation the amount of travel, thereby bringing people 
in different parts of the country into more frequent 
contact, and thus rendering the character of our 
citizens more homogeneous, and uniting them more 
closely in their interests and feelings ; — and last, not 
least, bringing the moral character of the nation more 
nearly to a level. In this last respect, New England 
must undoubtedly be a loser ; and it is a question of 
no little moment whether this loss can be compensated 
by the advantages which we may gain. Our resources 
may be better developed, our property may rise in 
value, our wealth may increase ; but will all these be 
an equivalent for the moral change which must in- 
evitably follow, — the breaking up of those habits of 
order, and that respect for New England customs and 
sentiments, which have heretofore exerted a great con- 
servative influence on the character of society % If 
our people manifest the same shrewdness and good 
sense in regard to these priceless moral advantages 
that they do in relation to their pecuniary interests, 
they will guard with untiring vigilance those prin- 
ciples and habits which have constituted their true 
greatness, and given them such a commanding in- 
fluence." 

" Augusta, Jan. 2, 1848. 
" Have attended the Presbyterian meeting — three 
services. This evening we had one of the most in- 



MEMORIAL. 71 

teresting sermons I ever listened to. The subject 
was : The improvement of the city a religious 
duty. It was beautifully and powerfully written, and 
delivered in the style of an orator. The preacher 
assumed rather novel grounds, but sustained them 
very ably. He stated that he considered it but a small 
part of his duty to preach one continued round of 
doctrinal sermons ; that religion should be carried 
into the common walks of life, and all our daily pur- 
suits brought under its influence : hence the reason of 
his choosing this subject. He regarded the temporal 
prosperity of the city as linked with the spiritual, and 
a temporal decline as necessarily involving spiritual 
declension. He regarded a bustling, active, money- 
making man as a far more hopeful hearer of the Word 
than the idle and disheartened ; and so of communities : 
none were so hopeless as those that were declining, 
where the ominous ' To Let' was posted on the 
doors, the paint peeling off the houses, and the 
glass broken from the windows. He suggested, as a 
means of improving the city, the encouragement of 
public enterprises, manufactories, etc., and not depend- 
ing wholly on one branch of business, as heretofore ; 
the sustaining of schools, libraries, and scientific lec- 
tures, reading-rooms, etc. ; and last, and most im- 
portant, a cultivation of personal religion as the true 
and only unfailing source of prosperity. The business 
community were present by special invitation, and ap- 
peared very much interested." 



7£ MEMORIAL. * 

Mr. Fairbanks very rarely wrote a letter to his 
family without adverting more or less directly to the 
subject of personal religion, generally introducing it 
in an easy and unrepulsive manner. In the letter 
from which the above extract is made, addressing his 
children, he says : 

" I suppose you have been to the Sabbath school 
to-day, and I hope had a good lesson. I want my 
W. to be a good boy, and to love that dear Saviour 
who came down from heaven to save you ; and if you 
do love Him, you will try all the time to do nothing 
that is wrong. I suppose you, E., are still reading 
the Bible in course. I have read as far as the 14th 
ch. 2 Chron. But while reading this part, we 
ought not to forget that part which tells us about 
Jesus Christ. Oh, E., you do not know how much 
I want you to be a true Christian. Sinful and un- 
done, Christ is offering to save you. Go to Him, 
sorry for your sins, and earnestly plead w T ith Him to 
save you, and my prayers shall mingle with yours. 

" I wished you all a great many happy new years 
yesterday, but I suppose you did not hear me. May 
God bless you all, my dear ones." 

" Alabama River, Steamboat Orline St. John, 
"July 7, 1848. 

" I have been kindly preserved and brought on my 
way in peace thus far, by that merciful Providence 
which has watched over me from my earliest exist- 
ence ; and I trust that I feel some degree of gratitude 
to my kind Protector, though I am conscious that I 



MEMORIAL. 73 

fall far short of suitably appreciating my obligations. 
My journey from Augusta was very fatiguing, the 
passage being by very hard roads, night and day, for 
forty-eight hours, about half of the time by stage. I 
shall probably reach Mobile to-morrow, remain there 
over the Sabbath, and proceed to New Orleans on 
Tuesday next. 

" Saturday ) Jan, 8, 4 o'clock. I am disappointed 
in my expectation. Our progress is slow, and we 
shall not reach Mobile till to-morrow — perhaps noon. 
I dislike exceedingly to be travelling any part of the 
Sabbath, and should not put myself in a situation to 
do so, knowingly. We have been over two days on 
the river, and the novelty has passed away. I find 
much in travelling through the country which is new 
and interesting. I have just been on shore into a 
canebrake, and cut some of the canes, which I should 
like right well to carry home to E. and W. This 
is different from the sugar-cane, being much harder 
and stronger ; and the stalks, from the size of your 
finger to an inch in diameter, run up perfectly straight 
ten or fifteen feet. The sycamore and other trees 
also line the shore, from the branches of which hangs 
down the moss, like hanks of flax. 

" I have been amused to-day in seeing the negroes 
take their food. It was served up on the cotton bales 
beneath the promenade deck, and knives, forks, and 
spoons were entirely dispensed with. A milk-pan of 
hashed meat and potatoes was quickly devoured by 
half a dozen, being dipped up by their hard biscuits. 
10 



74* MEMORIAL. 

Some of the remains of meat from our table was then 
distributed, each taking a chunk in his hand, with a 
piece of bread. The coffee was next served in the 
milk-pan, being partially mixed with the remains of 
the hash. Altogether it was the most primitive meal 
that I ever saw devoured, and the appetite of the 
negroes was not at all disturbed by the want of 
neatness in the manner in which it was served." 

" New Orleans, Jan. 14, 1848. 

" I reached here Wednesday morning, and took 
lodgings at the Verandah Hotel. I have marked 
the window [on a card on which he had sketched 
the hotel] at which 1 am now seated, and where 
I am enjoying a mild summer atmosphere, — as 
much as I can do when subjected to an unpleasant 
headache which has stolen upon me this afternoon. 
A. complained of the same trouble in her last, and 
perhaps the contagion was communicated in the letter. 
If I could believe that to be the case, I would welcome 
it as a most acceptable visitor, rather than as a dis- 
agreeable guest. 

" I cannot now give you a description of the city, 
or my impressions of it, but shall have an opportunity 
to do so hereafter. I have not fully determined when 
to leave. A vessel will sail to-morrow night or 
Monday morning ; but it is a small brig, and may 
be out a week ; whereas if I wait till a week from 
to-day, I can have a passage in the British steamer, 
and be out but two days. If I can get ready, I shall 
go by the brig, which is called the P. Soule. 



MEMORIAL. 75 

" I passed by a slave-market yesterday, where were 
some four or five hundred negroes, boys and girls 
from five to twenty-five years old. There were a 
good many rooms in which they were kept, and fifteen 
or twenty would be paraded on the outside with their 
backs against the house, and there they would have 
to stand all day, to be gazed at by purchasers. When 
a man wanted to buy, they would be taken into the 
house, and examined to see if they were hearty and 
rugged and able to work well. When I saw some 
little boys about the ages of E. and W., I felt truly 
thankful to God that my little boys were free, and 
lived in a land of freedom. Oh, how good and kind 
has He been to all of us, and how much occasion have 
we to be grateful to our heavenly Father, and to love 
Him sincerely." 

" Brig P. Soule, near the mouth of the Mississippi, 
"Jan. 16, 1848. 

" Once more, dear ones, I can address a few lines 
to you before leaving our own land. I left New 
Orleans about 7 o'clock last evening, and a steam- 
boat towed us down, with three other brigs, to the 
Balize, as it is called, or the mouth of the river ; and 
I can send back this letter by the boat. My accom- 
modations — I will not complain of them, but they 
are not such as I am accustomed to. Our little brig 
seems hardly large enough to accommodate even a 
half dozen comfortably ; and yet we have stowed in 
here a crew of ten, and sixteen passengers, besides 
five horses, two dogs, and a deck -load of various 



76 MEMORIAL. 

articles. Most of the crew and passengers are con- 
tinually jabbering in Spanish, French, and I know 
not what other language. Not more than one quarter 
are English. Their manners and customs are all 
foreign. I did not get any supper last night, and 
breakfast was served up by our Spanish cook to-day 
at 10 o'clock ; and such style I It was well that we 
had a good appetite. The weather is pleasant, and 
we hope for a safe and pleasant trip to Havana, but 
God only knows where safety is. I have committed 
myself to His hands, and humbly trust He will keep 
us, and in due time return us in safety to our dear 
home. If I could only know before I leave that up 
to this time you were all well and happy, it would 
be a very great satisfaction ; but you also are in the 
hands of our blessed God, our kind heavenly Father, 
and to His care and protection I commend you." 

"Brig P. Soule, Jan. 18, 1848, 
" At So. West Pass, mouth of Mississippi. 

" We came to anchor here about 2 o'clock Sunday, 
and have remained since, on account of the fog 
and calm. It is now 7 o'clock, a. m. The pilot 
has come on board, the anchor is hoisted, the sailors 
are spreading the sails, and we are all right glad to 
get under weigh again. I wish you could see us 
here. Mr. F. and I have a little state-room, hardly 
large enough to turn round in. We have eighteen 
passengers — one lady only; all but ourselves and two 
more, foreigners ; — and such jabbering ! Our meals 
are several kinds of meats served up in every style, 



MEMORIAL. 77 

and swimming in gravy. Plates, knives, etc., have 
the thickest of the dirt wiped off with a greasy towel. 
But we have good appetites, and eat what we think 
we could not at home. And now, dear ones, once 
more adieu. I shall hope to have a chance to send 
this up to the city by the pilot." 

On the passage, which was an unusually rough one, 
Mr. Fairbanks received an injury which deprived him 
of the use of his arm for some weeks. In a letter 
to his family he thus delicately adverts to the " acci- 
dent," studiously endeavoring to save them from any 
anxiety : 

44 I met with a slight accident yesterday, which is 
causing me some uneasiness, but I hope it will not 
affect me long. I was crossing the deck, when the 
vessel careened so much that I lost my footing, and 
was slid down under the boom, my arm striking 
partly over it. From the feeling of the slipping of 
the bone, I concluded that the shoulder was dislocated, 
and it was very painful through the night ; but as it 
is less painful this morning, I am in hopes it will 
prove to be only a severe sprain. I think I shall not 
be able to use my arm for some time, however ; but 
it will not matter much when I am ashore, — but 
here with the vessel pitching and rolling, I do not 
dare to venture out of my cabin, and scarcely out of 
my berth. How little we know when and where to 
expect danger. I think now of the kind attentions 
I received from you, when I was hurt before, and I 



78 MEMORIAL. 

should enjoy them right well for a few days now; 
but Mr. F. is very handy in assisting, and in a few 
days I hope to be well again. And now do not think 
I am very badly off, as I have told you the worst, 
and you see by my writing this letter that I am on 
the whole doing very well. I am sitting on my trunk 
in my cabin. Mr. F. is on deck with the passengers, 
enjoying the prospect of land. The day is warm and 
delightful, with a cool and refreshing sea-breeze, and 
a kind and merciful Providence is smiling on us." 

Two days later he writes : 

" Sunday morning has dawned upon us, and we 
are still at sea, though we are now sailing along de- 
lightfully, with a light breeze and clear sky, and the 
mountains of Cuba in clear view, and with my spy- 
glass I can distinguish the trees on shore. The pros- 
pect is fair for reaching port in a few hours, but 
we cannot tell. After writing you on Friday, we 
were driven back to sea, — had heavy squalls of wind 
with thunder and lightning ; and had not a merciful 
Providence protected us, we should have been exposed 
to much danger. Our situation has been very un- 
pleasant ; but I feel that I ought not to complain in 
the least, as the mercies I have received far over- 
balance the evil. Would that I could be sufficiently 
grateful. My shoulder is less seriously hurt than I 
feared. The swelling is subsiding, and the pain has 
ceased, except when from some lurch of the vessel I 
get it moved out of its place. Oh that I could be 
at home with you to-day, and enjoy with you the 



MEMORIAL. 79 

quiet of the Sabbath and the blessed privileges of the 
sanctuary ! We cannot land to-day, if we get into 
port ; and this incessant jargon is not very consistent 
with the proper observance of the Lord's Day. Oh that 
men would fear the Lord, and praise His great and 
holy name ! Living in New England, and especially 
in our own highly favored town, we can form no 
just conception of the wickedness aud awful profanity 
which prevails. Let us be truly grateful for the dis- 
tinguishing mercies which we enjoy, and render unto 
God according to what we have received." 

On reaching Havana, Mr. Fairbanks was disap- 
pointed in not receiving letters from home, and in 
finding that the scales which had been shipped from 
Boston as samples had not arrived. This disappoint- 
ment, together with the delicate state of his health, 
had a somewhat depressing influence on him. After 
adverting to the objects of attraction around him, and 
yet finding very little interest in them, situated as he 
was, he says : 

" As it is, I should be satisfied to take the steamer 
which leaves this afternoon, and return to New Orleans; 
and the rather because my health is not good, and I 
begin to feel discouraged about its improving. Instead 
of gaining strength and flesh, I am losing both ; and 
yet I have nothing which seems like actual disease. 
My shoulder is gradually improving, and I have to- 
day got it out of the sling, though I have as yet no 
use of my arm, and have to travel very carefully so 
as not to jolt it. But after all my trifling difficulties, 



80 MEMORIAL. 

I feel that I have so much to be grateful for that I 
have no cause of complaint. I endeavor to put my 
trust in that Being who has given such abundant 
assurances that those who trust in Him shall not want 
any good thing; and I think I can say, — I wish 
with most perfect submission, — 'Not my will, but 
Thine be done.' It would be a source of very great 
satisfaction if I could know that you and all my dear 
ones were well and comfortable. I often — often look 
into our sweet, dear home to see you ; but while so 
distant, and communication so unfrequent, I can derive 
much satisfaction in commending you to the care of 
that kind and ever faithful heavenly Father who is 
ever with you and knows all your wants." 

The following is his account of a concert at which 
he was present soon after reaching Havana : 

" I attended last evening a concert by the celebrated 
musical performers, Hertz and Scevoli. It was an 
exhibition, of great skill, but as to the music, I have 
been more highly entertained by cousins C, J., or 
J. H. P., than I was last evening. The occasion gave 
me an opportunity of seeing the fashion of the city. 
The Governor-General and his lady were present, and 
many other dignitaries ; and of the hundreds of belles 
who came to be gazed at, dressed in the most costly 
attire, and sparkling with gold and gems, not one 
wore a bonnet or any head-dress, unless it were oc- 
casionally a wreath of flowers. Some of them would 
doubtless be regarded as very pretty, their dark 
lustrous eyes, graceful forms and attitudes, and full, 



MEMORIAL. 81 

round, brunette countenances attracting the constant 
gaze of the other sex, who lounge at such public 
entertainments." 

After a few days' observation he gives the following 
description of what he had seen : 

" I am constantly inclined to laugh at the odd ap- 
pearance of everything I see in this strange city. It 
is a walled town, a strong military post, and almost 
every man wears a sword or carries a gun. The 
streets are narrow, with no sidewalks, or only a single 
path about two feet wide in some of them. The walls 
of the houses are thick, heavy masonry ; the windows 
mostly grated and without glass ; the entrances wide, 
arched gate-ways ; the front hall generally occupied 
as a carriage-house for the volantes, and opening into 
a court, the back part of which is used for a stable. 
The parlors are either at the sides of the hall, or on 
the next floor. The floors are plaster ; the doors 
somewhat like our barn-doors, or more like prison- 
doors with bolts and hasps. The streets are full of 
volantes, in which the fashionables lounge about the 
town, and business men ride from place to place. It 
is from twenty to twenty-five feet from the horse's 
head to the back end of the whole establishment ; the 
driver has boots reaching above his knees ; and the 
horse's tail is braided and tied round to the saddle. 
The ladies wear no bonnets, but a kind of veil, cover- 
ing all the head except from the forehead to the upper 
lip. The parlors on the lower floor are exposed to 
the observation of all passers-by, through the low, 
11 



82 MEMOKIAL. 

grated windows, and the inmates seem desirous of 
being observed. In the square there is exquisite 
music by the band every evening, and we have had 
a rich treat there this evening. We did not inquire 
whether the band was playing for our special amuse- 
ment, or the Governor-General's. The shops are 
generally small, usually with a small door back, open- 
ing into a court or other apartments filled with goods. 
The ladies ride to the shops in the volantes^ and the 
shopman brings his goods out to them. There are 
no signs, or display of goods out of doors ; and I 
find it very difficult to find the houses to which I 
have letters. On the whole it seems almost as though 
I had got out of the world. I should be willing to 
stay here a few days at least, to learn where I am. 
There is scarcely a trace of anything American here. 
They will not even touch American gold or silver. 
It must be stamped with the Spanish arms, or it is 
good for nothing. Music seems to be the presiding 
genius. It is constantly ringing through the arches 
of our hotel, and echoing from its solid walls ; and 
you hear it at every corner of the street. The servants 
sung us to sleep last night with a soft, plaintive song ; 
and as we came in this evening, a young fellow at 
the gate- way was playing on his guitar, and two 
slender little negro wenches were not ungracefully 
tripping ' on the light, fantastic toe ' in the space 
usually occupied by the volantes. There is music 
also in the language, — a soft, round fulness that is 
certainly far more melodious than our rough English. 



MEMORIAL. 83 

Even the watchman's cry, which has just echoed from 
street to street at eleven o'clock, and is even now 
repeated again and again in the distance, is pronounced 
in a half singing and melodious tone, very different 
from the 'AH 's well' which reverberated every hour 
in the cities of the Southern States. But I must leave 
off, or you will think me in love with Havana, and 
that I should be willing to exchange it for Vermont. 
And for a time I certainly should, if you could all 
be with me. Only think of our warm, summer-like 
weather, and yet with a breeze to make us perfectly 
comfortable, night and day ; with pine-apples and 
oranges fresh from the trees. An almond-tree flour- 
ishing in the court, the palm-tree among the common 
shade-trees, and everything clothed in verdure in mid- 
winter ; green peas served up daily through the year, 
and all kinds of garden vegetables ; — it seems like 
romance." 

Writing to his family, February 7th, he says : 
" Yesterday I kept my room mostly, and while I 
should have prized highly the privileges of the sanc- 
tuary, I had much cause to be thankful that I could 
in the comparative quiet of my own room engage 
in any duties appropriate to the day. Although I 
mourned the want of my accustomed Sabbath privi- 
leges, I could yet call it the best of days. It is true, 
on the Sabbath the thoughts will throng back to 
Vermont, and cluster around my own dear home 
more than on other days ; but there is a satisfaction 
in thus looking on the sweet picture which Fancy 



84 MEMORIAL. 

conjures up, and in linking it with prayer for a divine 
blessing on the cherished objects of my affection. 
There is a pleasure also in dwelling on that love of 
God which we so richly experience, as exhibited in 
the distinguishing blessings which we enjoy over this 
people. Why should He have thus distinguished us % 
Oh, how great, how boundless our obligations ! May 
His Holy Spirit help us daily to appreciate His good- 
ness, and to render unto Him according to the benefits 
we have received, a constant, earnest, faithful ser- 
vice, watching against every approach of sin, and 
diligently striving to omit no duty. 

" My shoulder, though still very troublesome, is so 
far improved that with some difficulty I can dress 
myself without assistance. My business progresses 
slowly. It is a week since the scales arrived, and 
yet I have not got the delivery of one of them, owing 
to the tardy manner of doing business at the custom- 
house, and on the wharves. I feel keenly the loss 
of time, but it cannot be avoided, and is undoubtedly 
all for the best. 

" I enclose a little rose which I plucked from a bush 
in a beautiful little circular enclosure around a fountain, 
outside of the walls. Flowers are abundant, but the 
owners at this season do not like to have them plucked. 
As this, however, belonged to the public, I thought I 
might take it as my share ; and as no one objected, 
I took it that silence gave consent." 

On the 10th of February he left Havana for Car- 
denas, a seaport town upon the same island. Of 



MEMORIAL. $5 

this place, and his situation there, he thus writes, 
February 13th : 

" Cardenas is a new place, and everything is yet in 
a crude state. I suppose it very much resembles the 
first years of many of the Western villages. I have 
taken lodgings at the Hotel de Cardenas. Like all 
the houses in the place it is of one story, and like the 
large hotels in the States, encloses a square. The 
whole of the front part is in one room, which serves 
the various purposes of saloon, bar-room, billiard-room, 
dining-room, and reading-room. The north side is 
occupied for a nine-pin alley, and the south for lodging- 
rooms, while the kitchen and offices occupy the east 
side. The court accommodates the stable, hog-pen, dog- 
kennel, and poultry-apartments, and is well stocked 
with hogs, dogs, cats, horses, hens, fleas, and mos- 
quitoes. My room is finished in the rustic style, — 
the outside clapboarding forming the inside ceiling, 
and the bare rafters and boarding constituting the 
arch overhead. The window opening into the street, 
and without glass or grates, renders it necessary to 
keep the shutters closed during the night ; and the 
approach of day is indicated only by the light shining 
through the cracks in the boarding. I had expected 
to leave these peerless quarters as soon as to-morrow ; 
but the steamboat has not come in, on account of a 
severe ' northern,' and I have the comfortable pros- 
pect of remaining here until next Wednesday." 

With reference to the Sabbath which he spent at 
Cardenas he says : 



86 MEMORIAL. 

" I have spent the day in my room, and it has not 
been without its consolations. In the study of that 
precious treasure, God's Word, and in holding com- 
munion with Him, there is a satisfaction which the 
world cannot give ; and, although here the Sabbath 
is not at all regarded as a day of rest, yet I could 
shut myself up so as in a great measure to escape 
the disturbance. How sweet and precious, however, 
are the means of grace. I have followed you as you 
have gone up to the house of God. I have seen you 
listening to the anthem, and joining in the exercise of 
prayer. I have met with you in the Sabbath school, 
and tried to catch the low hum of the recitations. I 
have accompanied you back to our own dear home, 
and seen you seated at the social board ; and again 
in the twilight, dimly discerned your forms in the 
sitting-room around the stove, and almost fancied that 
I could hear the question : Where is father to-night \ 

" I have concluded to write a communication to the 
Sabbath school, and yet I have some doubts whether 
it is best, or whether it will be productive of any good. 
I will enclose it to you, however, and you may do as 
you shall deem best. If you have any question in 
regard to the expediency of presenting it, do not 
communicate it, for my own mind is about balanced 
whether to send it or not." 

The following is the communication referred to, 
addressed, " To the Teachers and Scholars of the St. 
Johnsbury Plain Sabbath School " : 



MEMORIAL. 87 

" The long time that I have been associated with 
you in a most interesting pursuit, and the deep solici- 
tude which I have ever felt that the institution with 
which we have been connected might be prospered 
and rendered instrumental of our spiritual improve- 
ment, must be my apology for venturing now to 
address you. Although separated a long distance 
from you, the school is not remembered with less 
interest than when I am with you ; and the scenes 
which I witness, often by the contrast impress me 
more forcibly with the value of the privileges which 
we enjoy. 

" It is now about the hour that you are assembled 
for your usual Sabbath exercises and prayer ; the song 
of praise and the instructions of the Bible are attended 
to without disturbance ; and the plan of salvation 
through Jesus Christ is presented for your contem- 
plation and acceptance. Here there is nothing to 
distinguish the Sabbath from other days, except the 
increased attractions of places of amusement and gam- 
bling, and the increased attendance on them. People 
are engaged in their usual avocations as on other 
days ; the shops and stores are all open ; teams and 
mules, loaded with the produce of the country, are 
coming into market ; a greater number than usual 
are congregated about the public-houses, drinking and 
gambling ; and bull-fights, cock-fights, and masked 
balls are witnessed only on the Sabbath. This appall- 
ing profanation of the Lord's Day is attended with a 
multitude of other evils. It is not uncharitable to 



88 MEMORIAL. 

suppose that very little true religion exists in this 
community. But very few pay any attention even 
to its outward forms ; and of those who do, a large 
proportion appear to regard the performance of certain 
ceremonies as fulfilling all the divine requirements; 
and after morning service on the Sabbath, all classes, 
not excepting the priests, are found at the places of 
public amusement. The people are characterized by 
a disregard of all the divine requirements, and of all 
the social virtues ; and any attempt for moral, intel- 
lectual, or social improvement, is strenuously resisted. 
It is literally a people that sit in darkness and the 
shadow of death. 

" It is easy to trace this deplorable degradation to 
the want of those privileges which we enjoy in such 
a rich measure. The Protestants are not allowed to 
hold any public religious services on the island, to 
distribute tracts, or to make any effort to promote a 
knowledge of the Bible. The Catholic religion does 
not require its votaries to make any such effort, but 
rather discourages it. The consequence is, that the 
people are almost entirely ignorant of this precious 
treasure, and are in no respect under its influence. 
They are under little, if any, moral restraint, and are 
kept in obedience to the laws only by the strong arm 
of a military force. The preparation for the future 
world forms no part of their concern ; and of the way 
of salvation by faith they have no correct conception. 

" When comparing our own condition with that of 
this degraded people, how great occasion have we for 



MEMORIAL. 89 

grateful thanksgiving to the Author of our distin- 
guished privileges ; and how great our obligations 
to improve them diligently. If the Scriptures have 
been the means of securing these blessings to us, they 
are worthy of still more careful and diligent study, 
and should receive our daily and prayerful attention, 
that they may make us wise unto salvation. To un- 
derstand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge 
of God, we must seek it as silver, and search for it 
as for hid treasures. It is not by an occasional and 
careless reading of the Word of God that we are to 
find the pearl of great price. Such a course may 
even bring upon us the displeasure of our Maker, 
and be regarded as profane trifling. Especially when 
we regard the Bible as containing the only true 
account of the infinite condescension of Jesus Christ in 
visiting our lost world on an errand of mercy, to lay 
down His own life as a ransom for our guilty race, — 
as containing a record of His teachings, and His kind 
offers of pardon and salvation to all who will with pen- 
itence come unto Him, — we should surely regard it 
as worthy of our careful, earnest, and constant study. 
Seeing, then, that God ' hath in these last days 
spoken unto us by his Son,' ' we ought to give the 
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, 
lest at any time we should let them slip ; ' and ' how 
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation V 
6 Let us therefore,' my dear friends, ' fear, lest a 
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any 
of us should seem to come short of it ; ' and ' let us 

12 



90 MEMORIAL. 

labor to enter into that rest.' A prize is set before 
us of inestimable value, — let us run with diligence 
and strive to obtain it. A crown of glory is held 
out for our acceptance, — let us not be so eager to 
gather the trifles of this world as to lose sight of the 
precious jewel. 

" Little children : I often think of you when I see 
the condition of the children on this island. Your 
sympathies have been awakened for the heathen, and 
you have sent your little stream of contributions to 
join the great current which is designed to bear to 
them the glad news of a Saviour. But here the 
condition of the children is more deplorable than in 
the heathen lands ; for no missionaries are allowed to 
come here, and their priests do not teach them the 
right way of salvation. The Roman Catholic churches 
are filled with images, and I have seen little children 
come in and kneel down before the image of the 
Virgin Mary, and cross themselves, and perhaps 
repeat a Latin prayer of which they did not under- 
stand the meaning, and then leave, supposing they 
had done an acceptable act of worship. They are 
never taught to pray to Jesus Christ, or to rely on 
Him for salvation ; and they do not know what it is 
necessary for them to do to obtain eternal life. Now, 
what can we do for these children \ We can ask 
our heavenly Father to open the way for the intro- 
duction of the Bible and Bible instruction ; and He 
can do it, and we trust He will. But we have a 
lesson to learn ourselves. If God has so much more 



MEMORIAL. 91 

clearly taught us our duty, shall we not be regarded 
very much more guilty than they, if we do not do 
as we are taught ! I hope, dear children, you will 
each of you strive daily to live as the Bible requires. 
Study diligently this guide which God has given you, 
and implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to enable 
you with humble hearts to obey its instructions. And 
may you, my dear friends, and I, so live and so be- 
lieve, that, whatever may be the allotments of God's 
providence in this world, we may be sure of a happy 
union with our blessed Saviour and with each other 
in that world where trials and temptations shall cease, 
and where the weary shall be at rest. 

" With affectionate regard, 

"J. P. Fairbanks. 

" Cardenas, Island of Cuba, 
"Feb. 13, 1848." 

From Cardenas he went to Matanzas, from which 
place he writes, February 16th : 

" How often my pen does get into use in writing 
to my dear family ! I came here from Cardenas yes- 
terday ; and I can assure you that I have changed 
quarters for the better. I am lodging now at the 
house of Madame M., a very good lady, who does not 
speak a word of English, and my only mouthpiece 
is an old Creole lady. I shall stop here but a day 
or two, when I shall return to Havana. I like this 
place better than either Havana or Cardenas. There 
are more Americans, and things are every way more 
American-like. It is, moreover, said to be a very 



92 MEMORIAL. 

healthy place. But Cardenas ! I don't know what 
would tempt me there again, — at least to my old 
quarters. I think in two weeks I should have been 
very nearly devoured by vermin. 

" It is a glorious evening, and I wish you were 
here to enjoy it with me. The temperature is just 
right to be comfortable, with a light breeze from the 
sea. The moon is at the full. I have just returned 
from a stroll on to the quay, which runs a long distance 
out into the bay, forming a beautiful promenade. A 
broad expanse of shoal water intervenes between the 
end of the wharf and the shipping, the latter forming 
a background resembling a forest of dry trees, while 
boats and lighters are lazily moving about the harbor, 
seemingly just for the luxury of enjoying the evening. 
I then wended my way to the public square, near my 
lodgings, — a pleasant square, with wide walks sur- 
rounding and crossing it, and a colossal statue of 
Carlos III. in the centre. A band of musicians were 
discoursing most exquisite music from near the centre, 
while all the elite of the city were promenading, or 
swinging around the square in their volantes. Of the 
hundreds of ladies who were present, dressed in their 
gayest costumes, not one wore a bonnet, or any cover- 
ing on the head, neck, or arms. Just think of such 
a promenade in midwinter ! The music was a rich 
treat, and has only ceased since I have resumed my 
pen. Some tunes would commence with the touch 
of a single note at distant intervals, by two or three 
instruments ; gradually a bar would be filled, and then 



MEMORIAL. 93 

other instruments would fall in, and others still, till 
at length the whole band would pour forth a full 
chorus of rich and melodious harmony, some parts 
being executed with a rapidity truly astonishing. At 
other times the bugle would begin a low, plaintive air, 
and then a note or two from the clarionet ; then a 
prolonged strain from several instruments ; and at 
length the full band again, with drums, triangles, etc. ; 
then all would die away but the soft and sweet notes 
of the bugle." 

From Havana he writes on the 20th of February : 
" Here I am again at Mrs. Almy's, my old quarters 
in Havana. I returned yesterday, and was sure of 
finding a package of letters and papers ; but not a 
solitary one had come to hand. It is now three weeks 
since I received anything at all from home, and I am 
beginning to be quite impatient, though I know it is 
not your fault. I have again followed you in imagi- 
nation to the house of God, and vainly wished that I 
might join you. Oh, how much I feel the loss of 
these blessed privileges ! How glad shall I be again to 
hear the invitation : ' Let us go into the house of the 
Lord.' I walked out to-day and went into the church 
of San Domingo, and presently some two hundred 
soldiers came marching in with drums and trumpets, 
playing some ten minutes after they came in. I then 
went to another church, where was a large number 
of images ranged in cases around the sides and end 
of the building, and before one of them the priests 
appeared to be performing mass. After witnessing 



94* MEMORIAL. 

this mummery for a while, I returned to my boarding- 
house, sorrowing" that nothing could be done to en- 
lighten this poor and benighted people. There were 
more people present than I have before seen at church, 
but most were ladies and negroes, with a few young 
men, who appeared to have come in to stare at the 
ladies, and spent most of the time in talking and 
laughing. 

" My dear boys, how are you getting along ? I hope 
you are making good progress in your studies, and 
that in your conduct you are daily becoming more 
gentlemanly, mild, and kind ; and that, above all things, 
your duty to God is not forgotten. Ask His for- 
giveness, blessing, and guidance, every morning and 
evening, in humble sincerity. Not only read the Bible, 
but think what you are to learn from what you read. 
Think also of what I said to you the Sabbath and the 
day before I left. I rather think I am getting along 
faster than you, E., in reading the Bible. I have 
read by course to the 18th Psalm. But I am 
not so anxious that you should read it so fast, as 
that you should understand and remember what you 
read. 

" Remember now what I ask of you, and I think you 
will not refuse your absent father's request. ' My 
son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.' That 
is your heavenly Father's command, and I now re- 
quest you to remember it. It means, if you see or 
hear others do wrong, do not fall in with them and 
do so too ; or, if they try to have you, tell them man- 



MEMOEIAL. 9«5 

fully that you will not, to please them or anybody else. 
Do not begin to do a little wrong ; for when you once 
begin there is no stopping. Set your foot down at the 
mark, and do not let the whole world tempt you over 
it. Fear to do evil. Remember ' the fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' Oh, my dear 
boys, love and honor the Saviour, and may God bless 
you. 

As the season of spring approached, the climate 
proved unfavorable to his health. His strength was 
greatly prostrated, and he found himself, consequently, 
unable to conclude all the business arrangements which 
he had intended. Considering it unsafe to remain 
longer under the debilitating influences of the climate 
of Cuba, he made his arrangements to leave by the 
earliest opportunity. The following letter will show 
the critical state of his health, as well as his calm, 
Christian composure in view of it : 

" Havana, Feb. 27, 1848. 

" I thought I should have to give up the idea of 
writing you to-day, on account of extreme debility; 
but I have got into a position in which I can do it 
without much exertion, and I will lazily pen a few 
lines. Now do not fear, for I shall not send this till 
I am much better ; and if you receive it, it will be a 
token that I am so. I left Matanzas I thought pretty 
nearly recovered of my difficulty ; but some extra 
exertions here, the fore part of the week, brought it 
on again. The difficulty appears to be checked now, 



96 MEMORIAL. 

but I have no more strength than an infant, a slight 
fever, and no appetite. Under these circumstances, 
I shall return to the States as soon as I can get 
there. 

" I was rejoiced, I assure you, yesterday, by the 
receipt of your letter of the £lst, together with one 
from dear M. and E. I suppose they are the last I 
shall have on the island — perhaps till I get home. 
Home, oh how I have longed to be there for a few 
weeks past ! I have felt the need of your kind atten- 
tions, and still more of your company, together with the 
quiet and comfort of home. My room opens upon 
a street which is a perfect bedlam, and I am so sick 
of the noise and confusion that I can hardly endure it. 
Then again, my stomach resolutely refuses everything 
I can offer it, and is continually calling for something 
from home. Altogether, I am very uncomfortable ; 
and yet I do wrong to indulge the least in any com- 
plaining, and I do not intend to, for my heavenly 
Father has been far better to me, every way, than I 
have deserved, and I think I am under very special 
obligations that I am as well to-day as I am. I do 
not know what He designs in regard to me ; but I have 
strong confidence that He will restore me, and return 
me to you in safety. But if He designs otherwise, I 
think I am willing to resign myself into His hands 
to do with me as to Him seems good ; and my prayer 
is that His will may be done, not mine. I feel very 
poor and weak, as though a breath would sweep me 
off; but reposing in His strength I know that nothing 



MEMORIAL. 97 

can overcome me. I have written the above at sev- 
eral times during the day, but must now close for the 
night. 

" Feb. £8. — Another day has worn around, and the 
steamer is not yet in, and no other vessel that I can 
leave in immediately. I feel a little impatient, but 
Providence is ordering it all for the best, and I will 
submit to the directions of supreme wisdom and in- 
finite goodness. What unreasonable creatures we are ! 
The all-wise Ruler is ordering all events right, and 
superintending the affairs of the universe so as to 
secure the greatest good of His creatures ; and yet if 
He does not turn aside and fix everything to suit our 
selfish purposes, how prone we are to repine and be 
impatient. What selfish creatures, too, we are ! The 
great object for which all created beings should unite 
their energies is the promotion of the glory of God. 
And yet how our first thoughts centre on self. What 
matters it whether life or death, health or sickness, 
abundance or want, are my lot, provided the glory of 
God is promoted by my joy or suffering % If the 
glory of God is our chief object, we are pursuing the 
great design of our existence, and fulfilling the will 
of our heavenly Father, and we may safely leave 
consequences t6 Him. But how greatly do I find 
myself deficient herein ! Selfish desires, and selfish 
pursuits, hang like a leaden weight upon my soul, 
and weaken my faith and cloud my prospects. Lord 
Jesus, strengthen me and all of us, that henceforth 
we may live, not unto ourselves, but unto Thee. 

13 



98 MEMORIAL. 

" March 2. — The steamer has at length arrived, 
and leaves to-morrow at noon. I design to take passage 
in her. I am gaining somewhat, though very slowly ; 
but presume that, as soon as I get out to sea, I shall 
get braced up. Now you need not borrow any trouble 
on account of me. My disorder is checked, and I 
am probably as well as I was two or three weeks ago, 
excepting a debility from which I might not recover 
in this relaxing climate for several weeks. I do not 
know that I can expect to hear from you again until 
I reach New York, which will seem a long time ; 
but may God preserve and bless you is the constant 
and fervent prayer of your affectionate husband. 

" Love to all the dear sisters, children, and brothers' 
families. Mother is especially remembered. Brother 
E. communicates some special religious interest at 
Lyndon, at which I am very much rejoiced." 

Mr. Fairbanks left Havana for New Orleans on the 
3d of March, in the British steamer Great Western. 
The following are extracts from a letter written dur- 
ing the passage. The affectionate reference to two 
friends residing in his family is only an illustration 
of the kind interest and attentions which he was 
constantly manifesting. 

" It seems to me that home will be peculiarly dear 
after so long an absence ; and I sometimes fear that 
I am doting upon it so inordinately that Providence 
will, for my own good, interpose something to mar 
the anticipated pleasure, and turn my thoughts more 



MEMORIAL. 99 

to the only sure source of happiness. Thank you, 
a hundred times, dear E., for your kind note. You 
wish me to write you at D. ; but I trust a line will 
be as sure to meet you at our own dear home in 
St. J. I am now floating- on the Gulf of Mexico ; 
and as my companions in the cabin are full of glee, 
in anticipation of the near termination of their voyage, 
I cannot collect my thoughts so as to do more than 
simply acknowledge my obligations for your kind 
remembrance. Your note gave me much pleasure as 
a token of your affectionate regard, and willingness 
to contribute to the happiness of one who reciprocates 
your sentiments, but is not always equally careful to 
reciprocate your acts of kindness. I trust, however, 
that the future may make up for the past ; though 
past experience should warn me against too strong a 
reliance on my good intentions. 

" Dear C, it seems a long time since I have heard 
anything from you. I suppose family affairs have 
had a claim on your time, though I have no doubt 
you have written me, and I shall have to forego 
the pleasure of receiving your notes for weeks. I 
have felt, for a few weeks past, the loss of the kind 
attentions which I have usually received from you and 
A. when I have been a little unwell ; but I have ex- 
perienced the same kind care of my heavenly Father, 
and have no cause to complain ; and soon, I trust, 
we may again be permitted to enjoy the happiness of 
each other's society. 

" I often look in upon you, and the picture is always 



100 MEMORIAL. 

very nearly the same. I fancy you all in comfortable 
health, and engaged in your usual pursuits ; and yet 
in the five or six weeks which have elapsed since your 
letters, changes may have occurred to interrupt the 
outlines of the picture, which if known to me would 
cause me much anxiety. But I will yet trust in that 
Providence which has ever smiled on us so propi- 
tiously." 

" Steamboat Western World, 
" 500 miles above New Orleans, March 17, 1848. 

" Dear Ones : 

" Fifteen weeks ago to-day, if I reckon aright, I 
was with you in our own sweet, sweet home ; and I 
fear four or five weeks must elapse before I again 
join you. It is a satisfaction that I am on the waning 
side of my tour. But these Western rivers — how long 
and monotonous when one is aching to get home. 
Four days have we been ploughing our way up the 
Mississippi, and yet only a third of our passage to 
Cincinnati has been accomplished, and a whole week 
more of the same dull routine is before me. It was 
pleasant enough for a day or two to see Western life 
on a steamboat, and the Western scenery on the great 
' Father of Waters ' ; but when the novelty has worn 
away, it is exceedingly tedious. It is a route, how- 
ever, that I have long wished to travel ; and my only 
regret is, that it keeps me from the bosom of my 
dear family a week or two longer than if I had 
returned direct. My health is daily improving, and 
I feel considerable confidence that it will in the end 



MEMORIAL. 101 

be better than when I left home. When I started 
from Havana, my weight was only one hundred and 
ten pounds. 

" To-morrow you will enjoy the blessed privilege 
of the sanctuary again ; but I shall be confined to 
the boat with gamblers and swearers, and not a very 
comfortable prospect before me. In my state-room, 
however, I can for the most part be secluded from 
this disagreeable company. I had a blessed privi- 
lege last Sabbath. The first time for eight weeks, 
I attended the services of the sanctuary, and the 
Sabbath school, and the Sabbath-school concert. It 
was a refreshing season, I assure you." 

The following is an extract from a letter to Rev. 
Mr. and Mrs. T. 

"Mississippi River, March 20, 1848. 

" Since I left home, I have- seen much to discourage 
the heart of the Christian. Cuba is shut up under the 
rule of an iron despotism, and a still more intolerant 
church. No Protestant public worship is tolerated ; 
and any effort to distribute Bibles and tracts is liable 
to be met with fine and imprisonment. The aim of 
the Catholic clergy seems to be to cajole the people 
with a few forms and outward shows, and to destroy 
as effectually as possible all sincere spiritual worship. 
The spiritual condition of the island is more deplorable 
than that of any heathen country on the globe, as it 
is more effectually closed to the introduction of a pure 
religion. The condition of our Southern States is 



102 MEMORIAL. 

also sickening-. Aside from the blighting influence 
of slavery, which hangs like an incubus upon the 
spiritual and secular improvement of the people, there 
prevails a most lamentable degree of vice and crime, 
which, it would seem, should call down the righteous 
vengeance of Heaven. The Sabbath is regarded but 
very little different from other days, unless it is made 
more particularly a day of sporting and amusement. 
The most disgusting and blasphemous profanity pre- 
vails among all classes, and the people seem to glory 
in setting at defiance all the laws of God. I do not 
mean to say that this is the character of all, but in 
travelling it is true of the great majority. Oh, what 
a change, and how happy a change, when the kingdom 
of the Redeemer shall be established, and all hearts 
brought under the influence of the Holy Spirit ! When 
can we hope for this glorious, happy day \ How 
should the hearts of all Christians yearn and pray for 
it, that God may be glorified, and not be so dishonored 
by His creatures. 

" I recollect cousin C. regards a person's hand- 
writing as somewhat indicative of character. You 
must bear in mind, cousin, in giving a verdict in 
the present case, that I am on board a steamboat, 
and am constantly shaken by the jar of the engine, 
so that it is with difficulty that I can guide my pen 
at all." 

" March 23, 1848, below Louisville, Ohio River. 

" It is now two months since I have heard anything 
from you, and I often ask myself what changes may 



MEMOEIAL. 103 

have befallen you during that time. I still picture 
you as well and happy, looking forward, as I do, to 
the time when we hope to be again united ; but the 
eye of Omniscience may see things differently. I often 
think of my aged mother especially, with apprehen- 
sion that I may not see her again ; and yet her days 
may be lengthened beyond the limit allotted to some 
of us who have numbered fewer years. But why 
should I be anxious \ A kind heavenly Father holds 
the destinies of all in His hands, and will order all 
events in wisdom and goodness. Monday afternoon 
I spent in reading over all your kind letters, — which 
had been separately re-read many times, - — and it was 
a rich treat. If I only had all the rest which you have 
written, how much satisfaction it would afford me. 

" March 24*. — We are now passing up La Belle 
Riviere, as the French termed it ; and it is truly a 
beautiful river. Broad and majestic, its current sweeps 
in long and graceful curves around the jutting shores, 
encircling in its bosom a multitude of islands, mostly 
covered with the original forests. The country is 
beautifully diversified with hill and valley, with rich 
woodlands, cultivated fields, and tasteful dwellings. 
The whole character of the country has changed since 
leaving the Mississippi, and instead of being the most 
monotonous, is one of the most picturesque and beau- 
tiful through which I have travelled ; and the well- 
cultivated farms and comfortable farm-houses and 
thriving villages strongly remind me of New Eng- 
land. 



104 MEMORIAL. 

" I suppose I am getting within a thousand miles 
of home, and begin to feel somewhat in the neigh- 
borhood of it ; though, had I not been so much 
more distant, I should still think myself in a far-off 
land." 

Mr. Fairbanks was still in very delicate health 
when he reached home ; he was exceedingly emaciated, 
and his general debility gave great anxiety to his 
friends. But he gradually regained his usual tone of 
health. 



vn. 



By his efforts in originating and sustaining the 
Vermont School Law, Mr. Fairbanks had become 
known as an earnest and judicious friend of education. 
His prominent position in this cause led to his election 
as a Trustee of Middlebury College in 18.50. After 
accepting this appointment he entered with much in- 
terest into whatever pertained to the welfare of the 
institution. He was soon familiar with its finances, 
its system of accounts, its need of funds and scholar- 
ships, the state of the library, and even with its dis- 
cipline. He encouraged measures for its greater 
efficiency, and contributed liberally to meet its varied 
wants. His letters to the President from time to 
time, making inquiries in regard to various features 
of the college, show how strong an interest he had in 
its prosperity ; and the somewhat frequent correspond- 
ence of the President with him, consulting him as to the 
best measures to be adopted to promote its usefulness, 
are an evidence of the strong confidence reposed in him. 

The following is one of his communications to Pres- 
ident Labaree, relating to the affairs of the college. 

" Supposing you might be in correspondence with 
Professor R., I enclose a draft for one hundred dol- 
lars, the avails of which may be appropriated by him 

14 



106 MEMORIAL. 

for the purchase of books for your library. As he 
will be in company with Mr. and Mrs. W., I hope 
some means additional will be placed at his disposal 
without encroaching on our funds. 

" You will probably never see the time when the 
wants of the college will be fully satisfied ; and it is 
perhaps as well, both for the institution and for the 
community. It is not our most richly endowed col- 
leges that are in all respects best for the education 
of our young men. It is for the benefit of such 
institutions, as well as individuals, to follow the way 
of the good old John Eliot, who says : ' My way 
is not to cast beforehand, but to work with God by 
the day.' It serves also to enlist the interest and 
sympathies of the people, to be called upon frequently 
to aid in sustaining our colleges, and to put them in 
a position to be the means of the greatest usefulness. 

" In regard to the salaries of the professors, I 
agree with you that they should and must be raised, 
that is, so far as the labor expected is fully and faith- 
fully performed. I should not, however, think it so 
important to increase the number of the professors. 
If the great object is to draw out and discipline the 
mental and moral faculties, I believe as much, nay, 
more will be accomplished by having the present pro- 
fessorships filled with thorough disciplinarians, who 
will sit down calmly to the work of making the 
students as nearly perfect as possible in the respective 
branches which they teach, than by increasing the num- 
ber. With a thorough training in the mathematical 



MEMORIAL. 107 

and classical studies, to develop the reasoning facul- 
ties, the memory, judgment, and power of fixed at- 
tention ; in the classical studies, rhetoric, English 
literature, etc., to cultivate the style, taste, imagina- 
tion, etc. ; together with moral philosophy, and exercises 
which will render a close study of the Bible necessary, 
for forming correct moral and religious character, — I 
believe your college will turn out better scholars, 
men of more sound and well-balanced characters, fitted 
for greater usefulness in society, and qualified for a 
greater degree of happiness themselves, than those 
institutions where a professor is installed to give 
instruction in each of the several branches of science, 
arts, and literature. I have written very loosely and 
perhaps unintelligibly; but my idea is, expend the 
same amount in paying well (so as to secure able 
men) the professors you now have, rather than in- 
crease the number. Pay them well ; require them to 
do their work well, and to educate scholars thoroughly 
finished in the branches which they profess to teach. 
You would not, in that case, turn out into the world 
walking encyclopaedias, but men who would be pre- 
pared to excel in any sphere where Providence might 
cast them, and to make their mark upon the world 
too deep to be obliterated." 

President Labaree has kindly furnished an account 
of Mr. Fairbanks's connection with the college as a 
trustee, which is here presented in his own words : 

" Experience teaches that but few men are qualified 
to discharge the duties of a College Trustee. It is 



108 MEMOKIAL. 

not difficult to find gentlemen who are willing to 
accept the trust, and hold themselves ready to perform 
some of its more formal and incidental duties ; but 
to obtain those who fully comprehend and feel the 
responsibilities of that office, is no easy task. Seldom 
are the necessary qualifications united in the same 
individual ; but in Mr. Fairbanks they were all found 
in full measure. As a wise counsellor he had few 
equals. His clear perceptions, accurate judgment, 
prudent forecast, and moral courage, secured for his 
opinions, on all practical subjects, a respect that clothed 
them with authority. His social standing, his rep- 
utation for wisdom and integrity, and his zealous 
endeavors to promote the highest good of his fellow- 
men, gave him an influence that few men of his quiet, 
modest, unobtrusive deportment have possessed. Add 
to this his active, untiring benevolence, and you find 
him eminently qualified to fill the office of a college 
trustee. 

" When first elected, he declined the office, fearing 
that his business engagements and other duties would 
not allow him to devote the attention to the interests of 
the college which that official relation would demand. 
His letter announcing such decision contained views 
respecting the duties imposed upon the guardians of 
a literary institution, so comprehensive, so just, and 
so earnestly expressed, that with one accord we re- 
affirmed his appointment. On a personal interview 
he was induced to accept the office ; and from that 
moment his energies, moral and intellectual, were 



MEMORIAL. 109 

devoted to the interests of the institution. As a pre- 
liminary step he made himself familiar with the con- 
dition of the college, its resources, its necessities, and 
its prospects ; he attended our meetings for business, 
listened to the statements, suggestions, and discussions, 
and thus prepared himself to speak and act intel- 
ligently ; and whenever he gave utterance to his own 
views, though his words were few, his voice feeble, 
and his manner unimpassioned, he never failed to 
command the respectful attention of all present. 

" When the Board adjourned, he did not dismiss 
the college from his thoughts until the next annual 
meeting, but bore it daily upon his heart. Often did 
he write for information respecting the progress of 
the institution, the success of plans that had been 
adopted for its endowment or improvement ; at the 
same time making suggestions, expressing sympathy 
in trials, and speaking kind words of hope and of 
encouragement. His letters always received a most 
cordial welcome. 

" The commotions sometimes witnessed in colleges 
and communities because some delinquent youth has 
received his just deserts, gave him no alarm. To 
the Faculty that would wisely and firmly maintain 
authority, in the face of censure and discontent in 
high places, he would express his earnest thanks 
and unqualified approbation. With him public in- 
terests far outweighed the interests of an individual, 
whether a student or an officer of college. Neither 
personal advantage nor private friendship could with- 



110 MEMORIAL. 

hold him from the performance of duties imposed by 
his official position. 

" We deeply feel the loss of such a friend. While 
we highly appreciate and are profoundly grateful for 
his liberal bequest of ten thousand pounds to our 
institution, we are painfully conscious of our loss. 
His mature counsels, his enlarged views, his earnest 
purpose, his lofty moral aims, and his active exertions 
in our behalf, were of more value to us even than 
that munificent legacy." 

The business character of Mr. Fairbanks is indi- 
cated in the views just expressed ; but the subject 
deserves a fuller statement. One who knew him well 
in this relation says : " his business talents were of 
the highest order ; " and another, " his business habits 
were laborious, prompt, and always very effective." 
And still another says : " he was one of the best 
business men I ever knew ; and the amount of 
business which he did on his tours was surprisingly 
great." There was a method and precision in all he 
did ; great neatness and accuracy in his accounts. 
His eye was quick to detect mistakes. " I cannot 
turn over a single page without finding mistakes," 
was his remark in regard to one man. He accom- 
plished much, and yet never seemed hurried or con- 
fused. He drove his business, but never allowed it 
to drive him. 

Some of his transactions involved questions of great 
perplexity, requiring for their adjustment sound judg- 



MEMORIAL. Ill 

ment, and broad and sagacious views ; yet for all 
such questions his resources were fully equal. His 
business habits and accuracy are known to have 
had their influence on other men, who are now 
profiting from his example. His high reputation in 
business circles made him the first President of the 
Passumpsic Bank, for the success of which he con- 
tributed his best counsels and services to the time of 
his death. But with Mr. Fairbanks mere accuracy, 
or system, or tact in his transactions, was not 
enough : with all these there was united an unbend- 
ing principle of rectitude. One who was for a time 
associated with him says : " He made it a point in 
all his transactions not only to maintain a high 
standard of integrity, but also to manifest a noble, 
generous spirit ; and I have always looked up to him 
as a model man, and esteemed it a great privilege to 
be associated with him. I regard his life as furnish- 
ing a fine illustration of the fact that active and 
extensive business engagements are not necessarily 
inconsistent with Christian activity. He did not suffer 
the world to secularize his piety ; rather, his piety 
seemed to pervade his secular transactions, and exalt 
them to a religious duty." 



VIII. 

A mind of generous and Christian impulses will 
always devise means for extending- good influences ; 
its efforts will not be limited to a single field of 
action ; it will go out in all the varied avenues open 
for it. One of the ways by which Mr. Fairbanks 
hoped to benefit the community in which he resided 
was by introducing improved methods of agriculture. 
He had become interested in the subject himself, had 
studied and made himself familiar with the more re- 
cent improvements. He was confident that by more 
wisely directed efforts a more valuable return would 
be made for the labors and expense of the farmer. 
He sought to make known what could be done, both 
by diffusing information and by the practical results 
of his own mode of procedure. He wrote several 
articles for the " School Journal and Vermont Agricul- 
turalist" on subjects relating to agriculture: on the 
preservation of manures ; on composts, collecting the 
views and experience of various writers ; on English 
agriculture ; methods of curing hay ; agricultural in- 
terests of Vermont ; true economy in farming ; breeds 
and breeding of cattle. What he thus advocated in 
theory he illustrated in practice. He realized large 
crops from his lands, and introduced some of the best 



MEMORIAL. 113 

breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine, from the sale of 
which he received handsome profits. In this and other 
ways he sought to benefit the agricultural interests of 
the State, and to present motives to the young men 
of enterprise to remain at home and develop the 
resources there, instead of seeking a new home in 
remote parts of the country. In one of his " sketches" 
written in the West, and published in the village where 
he resided, he says : " Vermont is rich in resources ; 
and were half the enterprise and talent which flows 
out from her to the Western world, too often to be 
blighted with disappointment, or buried in the pre- 
mature grave, directed to the development and im- 
provement of those resources, her hills and her valleys 
would resound with many a glad note of joy from 
those who now sigh in distant lands for the homes 
of their childhood." 

He was jealous, too, of anything that might seem 
to bring a reproach upon the interests of agriculture. 
When one of the newspapers made some strictures 
on the want of system or correctness in the business 
transactions of the Agricultural Society, he quickly 
came to the defence with a pointed reply. The men, 
he says, appointed on the business committees of the 
Society are farmers, who understand their own busi- 
ness, and are men of common sense, though they may 
not have all the culture of the schools ; and the press 
ought to encourage their efforts for agricultural im- 
provement, instead of making any feature in their 

15 



114. MEMORIAL. 

reports or business transactions a subject of unfa- 
vorable comment. 

Mr. Fairbanks's efforts for doing good were put 
forth in many directions. Most men have favorite 
fields of action ; some but a single one. But he 
looked about him in every direction, and wherever 
he saw a sphere in which something could be done, 
he was sure to occupy it ; and though his labors were 
so varied, they were well directed and successful. 
But the general statement that his efforts were varied 
and successful will convey no adequate impression of 
what he actually did. The proof of a general state- 
ment is found in the details. 

In connection with his brothers he did much to 
promote the improvement of the young men in their 
employ. He encouraged them to form and sustain 
a lyceum, to establish a library and reading-room, 
and he himself selected with great care the books. 
He also delivered lectures before them, and secured 
lectures from others ; and, as an incentive to them 
to cultivate habits of original composition, he offered 
prizes for the best productions. And the last time 
that he was ever present at the meeting of the part- 
ners, he spoke with special emphasis of the need of 
greater efforts for the good of the young men, espe- 
cially for their religious interests. How many minds 
have been quickened by these influences to efforts for 
improvement, or how many young men have been 
kept by the attractions of that library, reading-room, 
and lyceum from squandering their hours of leisure, 



MEMORIAL. 115 

or been saved from falling into dangerous courses, 
may not be known ; but it is the highest honor to 
the gentlemen connected with the company that they 
have brought around their men influences so salutary. 

He was prominent in promoting and sustaining the 
cause of Sabbath schools, of temperance, and educa- 
tion, and on these subjects Wrote and delivered able 
addresses. 

To advance the objects of African colonization he 
corresponded with gentlemen of property in several 
towns in the vicinity, to secure the pledge of a certain 
sum yearly for ten years. His efforts for this end 
were highly appreciated at Washington. The Secre- 
tary of the Colonization Society writes : " I have the 
pleasure of acknowledging* the receipt of another of 
those favors for which we have been so often in- 
debted to your kindness. The draft is most accepta- 
ble, and you have my hearty and sincere thanks for 
your unremitting devotion to this cause." 

When, again, the Christian Union was formed, the 
object of which was the elevation of the colored race, 
by providing moral and religious instruction for them, 
he corresponds with the officers of the Society, that 
he may understand its plans and aid in the accom- 
plishment of its purposes. 

He corresponds, too, with a missionary in China, 
to gain information concerning the condition of the 
Chinese, their employments, domestic life, religion, 
and customs. He also endeavors to procure such 
articles as would illustrate their customs ; — all this 



116 MEMORIAL. 

that he may awaken a warmer interest in the Sab- 
bath School for this heathen nation. 

He feels that our country needs a history of the 
United States, more reliable, written with broader 
views, and in a style that would make the study of 
it more attractive ; and he writes a long letter to 
Washington Irving, presenting a variety of consider- 
ations to induce him to undertake it. The close of 
this letter is here given : " If in your literary labors 
you seek for laurels, a work of this kind would twine 
around your brow a larger and more unfading wreath 
than has yet adorned it. If you seek for wealth, no 
work you have published will command so extensive 
a sale, both in America and Europe. If your aim 
is still higher and nobler, to benefit your countrymen 
and the world, no labor in which you could engage 
would confer a greater and more lasting favor on the 
former, or be of higher advantage to the latter. This 
and your other works would stand for ages as the 
true record of the discovery and settlement of a new 
world, and the planting and growth to maturity of 
its first empire ; and Americans would greet with joy, 
and foreigners with admiration, the History of the 
United States of America by Washington Irving.'' 

Though Mr. Irving never wrote this history, yet 
his great Life of Washington covers much of the same 
ground. 

When a neighboring State has made a political 
shipwreck, he points out, in an able article for the 
leading journal of that State, the rock on which her 



MEMORIAL. 117 

principles had been lost, showing that to adhere to 
so great a man as Mr. Webster even is not always 
safe, but adding, with a magnanimity which, if man- 
ifested elsewhere, might have saved to his country 
for the present crisis the services of that great states- 
man, that Mr. Webster ought not to be condemned 
for a single mistake. 

A plan had been proposed to raise a large sum of 
money in Boston for building a theatre, to make the 
place attractive to business men : more than two years 
before the corner-stone of the magnificent Boston 
Public Library was laid, he furnished for one of the 
journals of that city sound and convincing views of 
the still greater value to the city of a public library, 
with a spacious reading-room supplied with the litera- 
ture of the day. I cannot visit this rich storehouse 
of intellectual treasures, and look upon the generous 
provision made for the citizen and the stranger, with- 
out feeling that some of the first influences which led 
to the establishment of this noble monument came 
from the Green Mountain State. 

He wishes to contribute something to the cause of 
science : he therefore makes observations on the state 
of the weather, the fall of rain, and the like, which 
he regularly transmits to Washington, to Professor 
Henry of the Smithsonian Institution. He also fur- 
nishes him a description of St. Johnsbury and the 
vicinity. Of this the Professor says : " Your descrip- 
tion is interesting, and will be of service in reducing 
the observations you may make." 



118 MEMORIAL. 

He learns that books of a dangerous tendency are 
extensively circulated in one of our New England 
colleges ; and he writes at length on the subject to 
one of the college officers, urging him to call the 
attention of the President to the baneful effects of 
these books on the morals of the students. 

An illustration of what he was constantly doing is 
found in a letter to a lady on a visit to her friends : 
" And now," he says, " will you permit one word of 
preaching ] Will you remember the influence which 
every word and act of yours will have on those with 
whom you associate, and let that influence be exerted 
for their permanent welfare and happiness % During 
your stay, you may by your example and precept teach 
those dear little sisters the importance of forming 
their characters for piety and usefulness. Teach them 
that their first duty is to render service to God, next 
to promote the welfare of their associates, and last of 
all to seek their own happiness. Perhaps you will 
say that this is requiring too much disinterestedness, 
and I own it is far more than I practise ; but where 
do we find a character so amiable and so truly noble 
as in him who adopts as his motto, and daily practises 
from it, Be useful 1 " 

When an extensive circus company is commencing 
its exhibitions throughout Vermont, he wishes to stay, 
as much as may be, the evils resulting from it : and 
he prepares for one of the journals a view of the losses 
to the State in time and money, but especially in its 
bad moral influence. 



MEMORIAL. 119 

His pen is busy in every direction where evil is to 
be checked or good promoted. When it is proposed 
to unite the American Education Society with the 
Western College Society, he earnestly opposes the 
union, on the ground that the contributions to the 
united societies would be much less than they received 
separately, and that the Education Society would 
greatly suffer in its funds. 

He writes for the public journals on a great variety 
of subjects as the circumstances of the times seem 
to require : On the increase of ministers ; a second 
article on the increase of ministers (in February, to 
enlist interest in the concert of prayer for colleges) ; 
Education Society as a means of raising up ministers ; 
Education Society (to remove objections against it, 
giving the views of presidents of colleges, and pro- 
fessors in theological seminaries) ; The amount of aid 
to be given to indigent young men preparing for the 
ministry ; Thoughts relating to " shady side " (to cor- 
rect erroneous views) ; Whose duty is it ] (a paper for 
the better support of the clergy) ; What is essential 
to render prayer effectual ] Family prayer ; A wise 
man (Father Sewall) ; Education in Canada ; Educa- 
tion in Louisiana ; Hints to teachers ; Hints how to 
teach reading ; Hints on the order of studies ; Home 
missions (several articles) ; Domestic missions ; What 
shall be done I (a plea to promote temperance, virtue, 
and intelligence) ; What has been done (a paper 
on temperance) ; The administration and slavery ; 
Duties in regard to slavery ; The political press ; 



120 MEMORIAL. 

Take notes of sermons ; Facts in chemistry (three 
articles) ; also several " Sketches " written for the 
" Caledonian," while he was on a business tour in the 
Middle and Western States. His communications to 
the public journals, most of them long ones, must 
have numbered nearly or quite a hundred. These 
were written for the " Caledonian," the " Vermont 
Chronicle ;" the " Congregationalist," "Traveller," and 
"Atlas," Boston; the "New York Observer;" and 
the " School Journal" of Vermont. Besides this, his 
correspondence in relation to the school law alone 
would make a volume of more than one hundred and 
fifty pages. 

To these are to be added his numerous and long 
letters to his family and friends, full of information, 
often delightfully humorous, breathing a spirit of vital 
and earnest piety, as well as the warmest affection 
and interest ; those to his children embodying the 
wisest counsels and the noblest incentives to daily 
duty and to a Christian life. 

In what is generally considered a more direct sphere 
of benevolent operations, a sphere not merely of per- 
sonal effort, but for pecuniary contributions, Mr. 
Fairbanks's field of action was not less varied and 
broad than the one already considered. 

His eldest son, who was at school, writes him in 
regard to expenses at the close of his course ; to 
which the father replies : " I shall wish you to do 
full your share, and perhaps if you should pay twelve 



MEMORIAL. 121 

dollars, and then assist some needy scholars two or 
three dollars more, you would not be far out of the 
way." 

Again the son writes in regard to what he should 
contribute to the missionary society in the school. 
" I think you should subscribe five dollars. I want 
you always to do your part liberally about such things, 
and you can feel free to do it without consulting me." 
These simple statements are a key to his principles 
of benevolence. His charities were not always large, 
but they were bestowed with discrimination and good 
judgment, and where they would afford great assist- 
ance, or would be the means of promoting essential 
good. 

He quietly leaves Bibles at the hotels where he is 
stopping ; and when he knows gentlemen of means 
or influence who have mistaken views on subjects 
of great public interest, or who need to be roused 
to greater activity in the various objects of benevo- 
lence, he takes pains to have some volume suited to 
their case put into their hands, carefully concealing 
the source from which it comes. 

He takes a few books of a deceased clergyman's 
library, not that he wants the books, but that he may 
relieve the necessities of the family. 

He sends a few volumes to a clergyman, saying, 
with regard to the largest one : " Perhaps you have 
it ; if so, perhaps you may know of some one among 
your friends who would accept it." This is a small 
matter, but it is an index of character. 

16 



\W MEMORIAL. 

For aiding feeble churches, either in supporting 1 
the ministry or in building houses of worship, he 
contributed again and again. The Secretary of the 
missionary society through whom his charities to 
such churches were expended, writes : " Please excuse 
another letter from me. My communications con- 
cerning certain persons and parishes have in time past 
met with such kind reception that I am encouraged 
to write again." 

He sought out indigent young men of piety and 
promise, and encouraged them to enter on a course 
of study for the ministry. These he either gave such 
assistance as they needed, or he loaned them money, 
to repay when they might be able. Several young 
men were thus through his influence induced to prose- 
cute a course of study, who probably would never 
have done so without it. He once said that if he were 
to commence his life again and were counted worthy, 
he should rejoice to spend his days among the heathen 
in making known the riches of the gospel. But 
though his own voice is now hushed in death, that 
gospel is faithfully proclaimed among the heathen by 
the voice of one who was aided and cheered and 
counselled by him through most of his course of 
study. " I owe more to him," said this missionary 
to the writer, " than to any man living." After com- 
pleting his collegiate course, the missionary referred 
to proposed to teach a year, that he might refund to 
his benefactor some of the money that had been fur- 
nished him. But Mr. Fairbanks writes dissuading 



MEMORIAL. 123 

him from this, urging him to prepare as soon as 
possible to enter the ministry. The letter he closes 
by saying : "As I contributed what I did for your 
assistance for the purpose of advancing the cause of 
the Saviour, I hope you will never feel any obligation 
to refund anything to me, but regard the debt as 
due to our divine Master, and to be discharged only 
by working it out in His service." 

But a few days before his death, he made a gen- 
erous contribution to a fund which the students of an 
academy in an adjoining State were raising, to assist 
worthy indigent members of that institution. 

The widow of a deceased clergyman, whose son 
Mr. Fairbanks had offered to assist in preparing for 
the ministry, thus writes to him : " Thanks, my dear 
sir, a thousand thanks, accompanied by the fervent 
desire and prayer that my child may prove himself 
worthy of your generous patronage ; and should he 
eventually become a successful herald of the cross, 
may you be permitted to witness so meet and blessed 
a reward of your efforts of love." 

In reference to these efforts to aid young men a 
distinguished minister of the State wrote him : " You 
certainly act wisely in using means to extend your 
influence beyond this short life, and to help our good 
young men in their course of preparation to preach 
the gospel when you and I shall have ceased from our 
earthly labors." 

In a financial crisis, when there was much suffering 
in our large cities, he directs a friend residing in a 



124 MEMORIAL. 

remote city to relieve such cases of distress as might 
be known to him. The almoner of this bounty, after 
the death of Mr. Fairbanks, writes : " How beautiful 
and consistent was his Christian charity. I could tell 
you of many desolate firesides that have been warmed 
by his bounty, and of many sad hearts that have been 
cheered and soothed by his kind charity." On one 
occasion, after visiting with this almoner a destitute 
family in Philadelphia, Mr. Fairbanks said : " What 
a luxury it is to give to the worthy poor." A few 
weeks before his death he left means and devised plans 
for improving the condition of some of the poor of 
this city. Some of the means thus furnished minis- 
tered comfort to them, months after his decease. 

He was not unmindful of the needy around him, 
though the hand that relieved their wants was gener- 
ally invisible. Even when absent from his home the 
destitute are not forgotten. He writes : " I wish you 

to remember Mrs." (a poor woman) ft pretty 

liberally." He remembered often the aged pastor 
under whose ministrations he had sat in his earlier 
years ; he remembered needy ministers, sending them 
such things as would be useful, without the least 
intimation of the source from which the gift came. 
Sometimes the concealment was the more success- 
ful by the cars leaving at some place on the rail- 
road a barrel of flour, or other household necessaries. 
But the author of such charities was not always con- 
cealed, as the following letters show : 



MEMORIAL. 125 

" Dear Brother : 

" I have neglected too long to acknowledge to you 
the present of the 'Cyclopaedia of Missions.' It is a 
needed and valuable addition to my library. Will you 
permit me also to thank you (I know not who else 
it could be) for several presents received from an 
anonymous friend, viz : the ' Congregational Year- 
Book,' the ' Vermont Chronicle,' twenty dollars the 
past year, ten dollars the preceding year, and the 
present about Thanksgiving time the past year. I 
was encouraged to ' persevere.' " 1 

" Amid the discouragements," writes another, " of 
ministerial life in this northern section of Vermont, it 
is a consolation to know that we have friends here 
who feel an interest in us, and who sympathize with 
us in our labors. Of this we have had ample proof. 
We have received several tokens of regard from 
sources unknown. I have myself been made a mem- 
ber of the Library Association, Boston ; the ' Vermont 
Chronicle ' has been sent to me gratis ; and soon after 
my second installation I received through the post- 
office a letter enclosing a present of twenty dollars. 
This was quite touching to our feelings, coming as it 
did at that time. Should you know of any individual 
whose generosity would be likely to prompt him to 
such acts of kindness, you will please present to him 
our most grateful acknowledgments." 

The following paragraph is from the " Vermont 

1 This was the signature of the letter accompanying the gifts. 



126 MEMORIAL. 

Chronicle" of January 15, 1856: "We have for 
some two or three years sent quite a number of papers 
gratis to persons deemed by our friends in various 
towns in needy circumstances, or where there were 
families which it was thought would be especially 
benefited, who were unable to take it. But the in- 
dividual by whose liberality we were enabled princi- 
pally to do this has gone to his rest and reward ; and 
as no one has arisen to fill his place in this respect, 
we shall be constrained to stop most of such papers." 

Persons in large numbers, too; were made members 
of the Congregational Library Association ; others, of 
the Foreign and Christian Union and Missionary 
Societies. Indeed there was scarcely a cause of be- 
nevolence to which he did not contribute liberally and 
systematically. He had no favorite object to which 
he gave to the exclusion of others ; his benefactions 
to all missionary objects were liberal. During the two 
last years of his life, what may be called his strictly 
religious charities amounted to over one thousand dol- 
lars a year ; there is no means of determining what 
they were previously. These and all other benefactions 
here referred to were independent of the large amounts 
given by the company with which he was connected. 

The heartiness with which he contributed to the 
missionary cause may be seen by a single incident. 
At a time of great financial embarrassment, when their 
company could with difficulty make collections, several 
hundred dollars were paid him for the sale of private 
property ; though the sum would have been serviceable 



MEMORIAL. 127 

in their business operations, he felt that the mission- 
ary cause needed it more, and it all went into that 
treasury. 

In the final disposition of his property Mr. Fairbanks 
showed the same broad principles of charity which 
had been previously conspicuous, providing for the 
wants of needy ministers who had " borne the heat 
and burden of the day" in their Master's service, and 
giving aid, encouragement, and facilities to those who 
were in a course of preparation to take their places. 

After making but a comfortable provision for his 
family, he gave ten thousand dollars as a fund the 
interest of which is to be applied to aid pious young 
men of Vermont needing assistance in a preparatory 
course of education for the Christian ministry, prefer- 
ence being given to the academic or earlier stages 
of the course, though the aid may be rendered through 
the whole course of study ; ten thousand dollars as a 
fund the interest of which is to be appropriated for 
the support of poor ministers, who, having labored at 
least five years in the State of Vermont, are, by reason 
of age or infirmity, unable to devote themselves longer 
to their profession : the appropriations from both these 
funds to be made by a board of five persons, ap- 
pointed annually by the General Convention of Con- 
gregational Ministers and Churches of Vermont ; 
two thousand dollars in trust to the Trustees of 
St. Johnsbury Academy, the interest of which is to 
be appropriated to aid pious young men, depending 
on their own exertions for support, in preparing for 



128 MEMORIAL. 

the ministry ; and ten thousand dollars to Middlebury 
College. 

On a scrap of paper found in his drawer, without 
any explanation whatever, is the following parallel 
between two men. In one of them he has uncon- 
sciously drawn his own character. 

" There were two men in one city, the one a 
merchant, the other a statesman. One made himself 
known through the world ; his name was in the mouth 
of kings ; mankind did him honor. The other was 
known to the secluded home of want; the orphan's 
blessing followed him wherever he trod ; and his 
thoughts were for his fellow-men ; while no night 
closed in without something done by him to cheer the 
struggling or solace the sorrowing. 

" These two men were known for more than forty 
years : the one as a man of study, whose nights were 
filled with cares of state, and whose days were rich 
in speech ; while the other bore no laurels of oratory, 
and no victorious trophies of legal or legislative con- 
quest. These two men died, and many pens and 
prints and tongues defend and eulogize the one, while 
a silent gratitude and love praise the other. The one 
has the nation's regard for his power ; the other re- 
poses in the warm affections of many sincere hearts 
for his goodness. The one obtains the nation's praise; 
the other, the widow's and the orphan's prayer." 

Daniel Webster and Amos Lawrence, — greatness 
and goodness; the benediction of the poor, the widow, 
and the orphan he prizes above a nation's homage. 



IX. 



The following letters were addressed to a young 
man whom Mr. Fairbanks was aiding in his course 
of study preparatory for the ministry, and who is now 
a missionary to the heathen. They indicate the breadth 
of his views on religious subjects, and present some 
elements of character with more fulness than most of 
his other writings. Nearly all his letters, except those 
on business, were written in the evening, usually at a 
late hour, after the exhausting labors of the day. 

"Nov. 17, 1851. 

" Your kind letter of October 7th was duly received, 
and as usual I have been very dilatory in replying to 
it. It always gives us much pleasure to hear from 
you, especially when we can hear that you are well, 
and enjoying the blessings with which Providence is 
favoring you. How full, varied, and excellent are 
the blessings which the Christian religion affords us. 
How inexhaustible are the riches conferred by our 
heavenly Father, even in this world, on those who 
possess His spirit. Love, gratitude, thankfulness, pa- 
tience, hope, fill the heart, instead of hatred, jealousy, 
anger, malice, strife. Everything wears a smiling 
aspect, instead of a frown. If troubles assail us, we 
can cast all our troubles on the Lord, and rest quietly 
17 



ISO MEMORIAL. 

in His arms, perfectly assured that He will take care 
of us and do what is for our best good. The thought 
that we are the objects of the surpassing love of the 
Prince of Life, the Son of the Highest, is sufficient 
to cheer us in the hour of deepest gloom. Oh, if our 
faith was always strong, if we always lived near our 
Saviour, the world would have but few trials, and the 
peace of heaven would begin on earth." 

"July 2, 1852. 

" We often think and speak of you, and generally 
imagine your situation for the most part pleasant. 
Your pursuits and associations appear to us at a 
distance as agreeable as they could be under any cir- 
cumstances ; and yet I am aware that there is no 
situation in this world free from care, anxiety, and 
disappointment. The enjoyment which is experienced, 
however, depends far more on the disposition and 
feelings than on any outward circumstances. A cheer- 
ful and contented spirit will clothe with glad sunlight 
the most unpropitious circumstances, and see causes 
of rejoicing even when afflictions and disappointments 
are encountered on every side ; but a repining and 
discontented disposition will shade the brightest scenes 
of human life with dissatisfaction. Even laying aside 
the consolations of religion, a man's happiness in this 
life may be said to rest in a great measure in his own 
hands. If he chooses to cultivate a spirit of cheerful- 
ness and contentment, adverse circumstances will be 
overlooked, and the c sunny side' will appear most 
prominent and distinct in the view, reflecting a joyous 



MEMORIAL. 131 

light upon his own soul. But if he seizes on each 
unfavorable event or condition and dwells upon it, 
thereby feeding a morbid appetite for what is un- 
pleasant, he makes himself completely miserable, 
though surrounded by everything which ought to give 
comfort and happiness. I believe you are one of those 
who are disposed naturally to look on the bright side, 
which is the true philosophy ; and this, taken in con- 
nection with that principle of our religion which 
teaches us that a wise and good Being controls and 
directs all events so as to promote the welfare of all 
who trust in Him, is the surest guaranty of a happy 
and useful life. And were it not that sin has entered 
into the world, in what respect is our physical con- 
dition much less calculated to secure happiness than 
that of Adam in Paradise ? What can we want, 
what can we imagine, more beautiful than the varied 
landscape spread out before us in all its luxuriant 
verdure % What music sweeter than that poured forth 
by the feathered songsters, and the hum of universal 
nature going up in a continued anthem to the great 
Creator \ How many objects on which to bestow 
the gushing affections of warm hearts, and from which 
to receive a return of affection ! What lofty subjects 
presented for the contemplation of our faculties ! And 
if any of these sources of happiness are for a time 
intermitted, with what zest are they welcomed on their 
return ! Truly the goodness of the Lord fills the 
earth ; and if we were half as good to ourselves as 
He is to us, we should never indulge a repining 



132 MEMORIAL. 

thought, or utter a murmuring word, whatever our 
condition might be ; but should rejoice in the Lord 
always." 

"Sept. 29, 1852. 

" It is very pleasant to look over the mercies of God 
towards us, as you seem disposed to do. I think it 
is one of the most profitable exercises that we can 
engage in. I have often noticed with admiration how 
much the principle of love is inculcated in the Scrip- 
tures. This affection is developed so fully in the 
divine character that we are assured God is love * and 
in all His works and providences this attribute shines 
out with unrivalled splendor. And if we notice what 
God requires first of all in man, as the foundation of 
all other graces, it is a reflection of this attribute, — 
a supreme love to Himself in return for the boundless 
love He has bestowed upon us, and a love for the 
other objects of His affection even as we love ourselves. 
Hate belongs not to the divine character, but only to 
the Adversary and his children. It is the opposite of 
the divine character, and finds no resting-place in the 
hearts of holy beings. So far, then, as we accustom 
ourselves to survey the character of God as shown in 
His works and providences, we shall be cultivating 
the like affections in our own hearts ; and as we see 
the attribute of love exhibited so conspicuously in His 
dealings with us, it will have a tendency to awaken 
a corresponding affection in our own bosoms. ' It is 
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing 
praises unto His name ; — to show forth His loving- 



MEMORIAL. 133 

kindness in the morning, and His faithfulness in the 
night-season.' But oh, how far short we must always 
come of rendering unto Him according to the benefits 
we have received ! 

" I hope, dear brother, you will be on your guard, 
and not let the seeming requirements of college-life 
for close application seduce you into a course which 
will deprive you of health. I ardently hope you may 
be gratified in serving our blessed Master in the way 
you have chosen ; and to be prepared to do it accep- 
tably, you need health and strength ; and you must 
regard your physical powers, as well as your moral 
and intellectual, devoted to a rational service of the 
great King. 

" I send you a draft for thirty dollars, which you 
can get cashed at the bank in your place. You may 
need the ten dollars extra for some things you had 
calculated to do without ; and should you find it neces- 
sary, I shall endeavor to supply you further with what 
is necessary for you to complete your course." 

" May 2, 1853. 

" Your welcome letter of April £7 tn came duly to 
hand. I am always much gratified to hear from you, 
and to learn of your situation, progress, and prospects, 
and especially in regard to your religious exercises. 
It would undoubtedly be profitable for the disciples 
of Christ to communicate more frequently in relation 
to their spiritual affairs, telling each other of the joys 
and sorrows, the hopes and fears, the encouragements 
and discouragements, which are incident to their pil- 



134. MEMORIAL. 

grimage. Is it not strange that there is so little of 
this communion of saints'? and is it not one reason 
why there is apparently so much less spiritual-minded- 
ness on the part of Christians than has existed in 
some earlier periods of the history of the Church % I 
have the impression that even now, among the perse- 
cuted Christians of Tuscany, and among the Waldenses 
of Piedmont, there is more intercommunication be- 
tween those who love the Lord, in regard to spiritual 
exercises, which tends greatly to a more perfect de- 
velopment of Christian character ; and I have but little 
doubt that a more free and confidential communication 
of this character among ourselves would produce like 
results. 

" I think we have great occasion to praise God that 
He has in any measure visited our colleges and semi- 
naries with His blessing. I do not learn that any have 
been visited so powerfully as at previous periods ; but 
there is a large number that have received some very 
refreshing tokens of the divine favor. And perhaps 
we may look for a more entire consecration of the 
converts to the service of Christ when the number is 
comparatively limited, than when there is so large a 
number that the work is regarded as of a popular 
character. My brother's school at Andover has again 
been graciously visited, and H. tells me that there is 
now a very precious work in progress at Hanover. 
I trust God has in view the supplying the lack of 
laborers in the gospel harvest. The Church has been 
seriously alarmed at the prospect of so few, of late 



MEMORIAL. 135 

years, commencing a preparation for this work ; and 
the direction of our Saviour to pray the Lord of the 
harvest to send more laborers into the field has doubt- 
less rested with great weight on the sincere friends of 
Christ. 

" Yesterday was our communion, and I was very 
much disappointed to be deprived of attending meeting 
on account of sickness. A cough, with which I have 
been afflicted for several weeks, assumed so serious a 
character, accompanied with feverish symptoms, that 
I was forced to keep the house. I think, however, 
that my mind was exercised somewhat appropriately 
to the occasion ; and that, alone, I was enabled to have 
some sweet communion with my Saviour, and to 
realize in some degree the exceeding richness of that 
love which He manifested for our most unworthy and 
guilty race, in the plan of redemption. How replete 
with the warmest sympathy, the most tender com- 
passion, and with love which passeth knowledge, is 
His whole character. A yearning affection wells forth 
continually from His heart, for the poor, the miserable, 
the lost ; and, how wonderful, you and I the objects 
of that love ! We see Him at the court of heaven, a 
most powerful advocate pleading our cause before the 
great white throne. We see Him throwing His shield 
around us to protect us in our pilgrimage. We feel 
in our souls His consoling, cheering, and animating 
influence. How strong, how infinite the obligation 
to give ourselves entirely to Him, consecrating our 
bodies and souls to His service for time and eternity. 



136 MEMORIAL. 

" My mother is now very low, and probably can 
survive but a few days. She seems perfectly conscious 
of her situation, and her confidence in the Saviour is 
strong- and unwavering." 

The preceding letters were written to Mr. M. while 
he was a member of Amherst College ; the following 
while he was engaged in teaching : 

"Oct. 10, 1853. 

" I was gratified to learn of the encouraging con- 
dition and prospects of your school, and I trust you 
have continued to be successful in it. In that as in 
all your other pursuits you will make an impression 
which will be indelible, though the exact result may 
not be apparent till years have passed away. The 
gradual improvement of all your pupils will be the 
great business of the term ; but if in addition you can, 
by a pointed effort, arouse one young man to attend 
earnestly, anxiously, to the concerns of his soul, — fix 
one nail in a sure place, — strike one blow which will 
give an impetus, a direction to the future life of one 
of your pupils, and that direction in the way of life, — - 
who can calculate the results ! How great the respon^ 
sibility which rests on you, on me, on all that love the 
Saviour, to let our influence tell with power on our 
fellow-beings with whom we come in contact ! The 
Lord grant us grace to be faithful the little time we 
have the privilege to labor for His cause. 

" How big with events does the social, moral, and 
religious condition of the world now appear ! The 



MEMORIAL. 137 

nations of Europe and Asia are waking up from the 
sleep of ages ; and it seems as though God was about 
to ' turn and overturn, till He whose right it is shall 
reign.' While we are called upon to labor and pray, 
so far as results are concerned we can only stand still 
and see what the Lord is doing. How wonderful the 
accounts from China ! If God should overrule that 
revolution for the breaking up of the old idolatrous 
system of that nation, and the establishment of the 
true religion, we could only say : 'It is the Lord's 
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' It would 
indeed be, not the harbinger, but the actual introduc- 
tion of the millennium ; not wrought by the agency 
of man, but by the direct power of God. Christians 
must be awake and at work, or they will lose the 
great privilege of laboring in the cause the Master 
has committed to their hands." 

The following was addressed to Mr. M. soon after 
he entered the Theological Seminary, Andover : 

"Dec. 1, 1853. 

" I shall be glad to learn, when you have leisure to 
write, how you like your new situation, your studies, 
etc. I think you cannot but be interested ; and I trust 
you will be prospered in your progress through this 
part of your course, as you have been heretofore. 
The more you can lean on the divine support, the 
more sure and triumphant will be your success. The 
Spirit can illumine the understanding, lay open to our 
comprehension those truths which days and weeks of 

18 



138 MEMORIAL. 

weary plodding and trusting- to our own wisdom would 
fail to discover in any clear and practical manner. 
The Bible and prayer are the great and effective 
instruments of warfare which the Christian minister 
must learn to wield with skill and energy, to fulfil the 
high duties of his mission. A faithful use of these 
will guard him from error, and furnish him all that 
he needs for the conflict on which he is to enter." 



The letters in this chapter were written by Mr. 
Fairbanks to his sons ; most of them to the elder, 
while at school at Phillips Academy, Andover, in 
1853, '54. They are rich in counsels relating to 
character, habits, and methods of study, and especially 
in the earnest religious spirit which they breathe. 
But few fathers have in this way been more faithful 
to their sons. 

" Detroit, April 13, 1851. 
" Dear E. and W. : 

" I suppose you are by this time snug in your bed 
and asleep ; but we are so much farther west that it 
is not quite bedtime here, and so I will spend a few 
minutes in writing to you. 

" I hope, E., you will work hard on your studies 
this spring, and try to have every lesson perfect. It 
is better to get a little more than is required of you 
than to fall a hair behind ; and if you have a mind for 
it, you will find much that you may learn in every 
lesson besides what you have to recite. There is fre- 
quently much gained, also, by looking over a lesson 
after you have recited, and fixing in your mind all 
that the teacher has communicated to you. 

" I hope you will give especial attention to your 



140 MEMORIAL. 

compositions and speaking exercises. In the former, 
study your subject thoroughly, but don't copy a word. 
If you examine books with reference to it, lay all your 
books aside before touching your pen to paper. I 
want you now to preserve all your compositions. 

" I am glad, W., to hear that you are doing well 
in your arithmetic. If you only try and are not 
indolent, I think you will have all your lessons per- 
fect ; and how happy it will make us if we hear that 
report when we get home. I have heard people some- 
times say, — 'You must drive your work, or your 
work will drive you ; ' and now I hope you will drive 
your lessons, and get them all done up in season, so 
that they will not drive you. 

" And now, dear children, I hope our heavenly 
Father will preserve us all till we are again united in 
our happy home, and that you will try to be good 
boys ; do all things so as to please your kind aunties, 
and make them happy. Be careful to remember that 
God is looking on all the time, and do nothing which 
will offend Him. I do hope you will try to do right. 
Be truthful, honest, kind, frank, obliging, industrious, 
and faithful in your duties to your Saviour. The 
blessed Jesus will be your kind friend, your faithful 
protector, if you will look to Him for counsel and 
assistance. If you find any wrong feeling or desire 
rising up in your hearts, do not let it stay there a 
moment, but drive it out. Resist temptations ; daily 
go to the Bible for instruction. And may the Lord 
bless and keep you." 



MEMORIAL. 141 

" Saratoga, June 30, 1853. 
" Dear Children : 

" We think often of you, and often fancy that we 
see you, — sometimes sitting down together, a little 
family ; sometimes at work in the garden, or taking 
hold manfully with Mr. G. and the others in the 
field. At night and in the morning we love to think 
of you reading the Word of God, and reverently 
bowing down in prayer to the same heavenly Father 
to whom we are, at the same time, perhaps, lifting 
up our hearts. 

" I was much pleased to notice the correctness of 
your spelling in your last letters. I believe every 
word in E.'s was correct, and all but one in W.'s, and 
that one I used to spell as you did. There should 
be but one / in ' scholar.' In the first letters, W. 
spelled ' waggon ' with one </, and E. ' thoroughly,' 
' thourally.' You will recollect and spell 4 thorough,' 
and then add ly. ' Reservoir' you only got so far 
as res, — designing, I presume, to look out the word 
in the dictionary. I mention these so as to fix in your 
minds the right way of spelling the words which you 
had wrong. You must retaliate by pointing out all 
words which you find wrong in my letters." 

The elder son, acting on his father's direction, pointed 
out a case of false orthography in a letter afterward 
received. To this the father replies : " I thank you 
much, E., for correcting my spelling. I might have 
always continued to spell that word wrong, if you had 



142 MEMORIAL. 

not reminded me of it. I trust you will always look 
out for wrong spelling in my letters, and inform me 
when you discover words misspelled. Please look 
in the dictionary and see whether all the following 
words are spelled right, which I copy from your last 
letter : ' parlour,' ' knawed,' ' raspberring.' ' 

" Philadelphia. 
" How do you get along with your studies, W. % 
I hope you will try to cultivate the habit of being 
prompt, and of giving your attention to whatever 
should be done immediately, and not put it off a single 
moment. When you write me, please say how far 
you have read in the Bible. I hope you will try to 
read the chapters for the respective days, and not 
delay till you have a large number to make up. So 
also be careful never to omit your daily duties, but 
with earnestness attend to them at the proper hour. 
You can hardly imagine how anxious I am that you 
should be correct in all your deportment, doing nothing 
that you would not do if you knew that I was looking 
on you, just as your heavenly Father is every moment. 
Be honest, truthful, conscientious in all things, and 
try to cultivate such a character that you will com- 
mand the respect, the confidence, the love of all who 
know you." 

" Philadelphia, Dec. 26. 
" Dear Children : 

" This is the last Sabbath of the year, and should 

awaken some serious reflections. In looking back 

through the past year, how much occasion have we 



MEMORIAL. 143 

for the exercise of grateful affection to our heavenly- 
Father for His numberless favors, for His kind and 
constant watchfulness, guarding us day and night from 
dangers seen and unseen ; for health and a supply of 
all needed comforts of life ; for our social enjoyments, 
the happiness of our home, and mutual affection ; for 
privileges of education ; and above all for the precious 
blessings of religion, — blessings of priceless value if 
properly improved, but a savor of death unto death if 
neglected. 

" On the other hand, in a survey of the past year, 
how much may all of us discover in our conduct for 
which we ought to bow down in deep penitence before 
our heavenly Father, humbly and earnestly imploring 
His pardon for Christ's sake. Dear children, will you 
not thus bow down, and with sorrow of heart plead 
with God for pardon and for grace to keep you from 
all sin through the coming year % Enter upon the 
new year with a firm resolve that, God assisting you, 
you will not give way to any sin, but will resist and 
turn away from temptation. Begin with your own 
hearts, earnestly pleading with God to change them, 
and to keep you from indulging sinful desires or 
thoughts. If you knew how earnestly I have prayed 
for you, I do think you would come and give your- 
selves to Christ, and strive for holiness of heart. 
I hope that we may soon be with you, and that 
we may all set out at once with the firm resolution 
to live on earth so that we may at last live in that 
bright and glorious world of light where our Saviour 
has gone before us." 



14£ MEMORIAL. 

"July 14, 1853. 
" Dear Children : 

" Many, many times every day do we think of you, 
and wish we knew just how you were at that moment 
employed. If you have such a bright and beautiful 
day as we have, I suppose this afternoon you will 
be among the hay, and I hope you will make your 
work tell to some good purpose. Although quite 
laborious, yet hay-making is a pleasant and healthful 
employment for those who have strength and anima- 
tion to engage in it vigorously. I used to delight in 
it when much younger ; and scarcely anything is 
now more grateful to me than the fragrance of the 
new-mown hay, and all the cheerful associations of the 
hay-field. Then it is interesting to think of the moral. 
To-day it is growing in its rich luxuriance, and to- 
night it is cut down and withered. ' All flesh is as 
grass.' Time with his scythe will cut us all down. 
But, unlike the grass, we have an immortal part which 
survives even Time himself, destined to shine with 
immortal splendor, and reign with our dear Redeemer 
in the regions of joy, or mourn in hopeless despair. 
As we do not know when Time will gather us, and 
give the fatal stroke, we should make preparation for 
his approach without delay ; and be as earnest in 
making the preparation as we are in gathering in 
the hay before the approaching rain. 

" I wish we could see your roses. We have some 
here, but not a great variety. How much we see the 
goodness of our heavenly Father in the flowers and 



MEMORIAL. 145 

various orders of vegetation ! It would be very- 
monotonous if there was but one kind of vegetation 
and one kind of flower, even though that kind were 
the most beautiful ; and still more blank and dreary 
if the earth was stripped of all vegetation. But we 
have, instead, spread before our eyes, a groundwork of 
almost every shade of green, occasionally ornamented 
and wreathed with the most rich and variegated colors 
which glitter in the prism or rainbow ; with the deep, 
unfathomable blue vault above, sometimes vacant, 
sometimes with a few sails gently impelled by the 
light breeze, and sometimes completely veiled with 
majestic and gracefully moving clouds. I hope, dear 
children, you will look on these beautiful things, and 
examine them till your hearts rise up with grateful 
affection to our dear and best Friend above, who is 
continually devising so many things for our enjoy- 
ment, and who is holding out to us the offer of still 
more glorious scenes in the upper world. 

" To-morrow, E., I suppose your school closes. I 
hope you will find the benefit when you go to Andover 
of the attention you have given to Latin this summer. 
I spoke to you about trying to excel in some one 
branch of study. Perhaps in Latin you would find less 
competition ; and on some accounts Latin would be 
more useful to you, for many of our English words 
are derived from Latin roots, and we get a better idea 
of the force and full meaning of such words from 
understanding the original than we can do in any 
other way. As an offset to this, however, I suppose 

19 



146 MEMORIAL. 

there are more of the treasures of literature remaining 
in the Greek language, and there is more of elegance 
and beauty of style in the latter. But another ad- 
vantage of Latin is the assistance it gives in the study 
of other European languages. You know the Romans, 
in the height of their power, held all Europe in sub- 
jection, and the remains not only of their progress in 
arts and arms, but also of their language and institu- 
tions, are found in almost every nation to the present 
day. A large portion of the words in Italian, French, 
Spanish, Portuguese, and many in German, are of 
Latin origin ; and a perfect knowledge of Latin will 
much facilitate the acquisition of those languages, some 
of which 1 trust you will sometime study. Now I 
hope you will make the decision to excel in one or 
the other, and make it a point to learn all the circum- 
stances, and everything in relation to it. Make your- 
self familiar with the history, geography, mythology, 
etc., of the nation, the distinguished men, the writers, 
and the character of their works. Be as familiar with 
the grammar as with the rooms of our own house, so 
that you can at once call to your mind the principles 
which occur in the construction of any Latin sentence. 
I think, too, you would find it an advantage to write 
down after your recitation the translation, with all the 
circumstances illustrating the lesson which you have 
learned." 

" Dear E. : 

" I will spend a few moments in writing a line to 
you, as I suppose it may relieve the monotony of a 



MEMORIAL. 1^7 

sick-bed to hear something from us every day. I 
hope you are gaining some, although I know it must 
be slowly. I presume you will find ' getting well ' 
the hardest part of your sickness, the most trying to 
your patience and the most difficult to bear. 

" You will now, dear E., have much time for reflection 
on your religious condition, and I hope you will im- 
prove it. The question should be asked with all serious- 
ness : What would now have been your condition, if 
your sickness had been unto death \ Would you have 
been prepared for that great change % Could you 
have said sincerely, ' Thy will be done' % These are 
questions to be settled between God and your own 
conscience, and I hope you will give them a candid 
and prayerful consideration. Consider the great good- 
ness of God in sparing you and giving you space for 
repentance ; regard His infinite love and tender com- 
passion in providing for your salvation. Hear His 
voice : ' Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die \ ' 
Reflect how aggravated the guilt of sin against a 
Being who has shown such a tender regard for our 
welfare — how ungrateful the return for all His loving- 
kindness. Can sin against such a God be forgiven % 
Yes, blessed be His name ! if we will cry for mercy, 
in the spirit of the humble publican, — if we will, like 
the jailor, earnestly and sincerely inquire, ' What 
must I do to be saved V — if we will come mourning, 
not so much that we have exposed ourselves to pun- 
ishment, as that we have offended a kind and com- 
passionate heavenly Father. Jesus stands with arms 
outstretched to receive us. 



1 48 MEMORIAL. 

" If I have one wish above all others, one ardent, 
constant, unwavering desire, it is that my dear children 
should be the children of God, — adopted into His 
family, and prepared to render Him honorable, faith- 
ful, and acceptable service while life endures. 

" And now, dear E., good-night. I shall ask our 
heavenly Father to watch over you, keep you, bless 
you, and, above all, give you a rich measure of His 
Holy Spirit, and an assurance of acceptance with 
Him." 

« Dear E. : 

" There is one duty that I hope you will form the 
habit of always attending to on the Sabbath, — that is 
self-examination. We need almost more than any- 
thing else to know ourselves. Nosce te ipsum was one 
of the maxims of the old philosophers, and it is not 
less essentially taught in the Word of God. We must 
know ourselves to see what needs correcting in our 
lives and characters, just as the sick need to know the 
nature of their disease, so that they may understand 
what remedies to use. I once gave you a little book 
called ' The Closet,' which is a very excellent assist- 
ant in this exercise ; but if you have not this, take 
the Ten Commandments, and ask yourself how you 
comply with the spiritual nature of their requirements. 
And as you read any part of the Bible, inquire how 
far you keep what is required in the passage. I hope 
you will give serious attention to this exercise." 



MEMORIAL. 149 

" Dec. 21, 1853. 
" Dear E. : 

" We were glad to hear that you had again got 
comfortably settled and engaged in your studies. I 
think your uncle's advice is good. It is not necessary 
to spend so much time in study as to infringe on 
necessary exercise or rest, if the time devoted to study 
is improved in earnest As much can be accomplished 
by giving the undivided attention for four hours in a 
day to study, as in ten hours spent in a listless manner, 
the mind constantly wandering to other objects. It is 
best to do, or think of, but one thing at a time. If 
one wants simply to eat an apple, he had better close 
his book and make a business of it, than attempt 
to eat and study at the same time. Cultivate the 
habit of fixing the mind so intently on the subject of 
study that you would not hear the report of a pistol 
in your room, or the jar of an earthquake, and you 
will accomplish wonders. You know what a great 
scholar Professor Stuart was, and how many books 
he wrote ; and yet it is said that he spent only three 
hours in study a day. But those three hours ! — no 
mortal man was allowed to enter his study, nor any 
unbidden thought his mind. His attention was fixed 
intensely on the subject of his study, and he accom- 
plished wonders. And so it has been with all great 
men. The habit of fixed attention has enabled them 
to master the subjects which they have investigated, 
and to give the results to the world in a manner best 
adapted to make a deep and favorable impression. I 



150 MEMORIAL. 

hope you will yet become a great and good man, and 
this habit of fixed attention, — of doing with your 
might what you have to do, — of living in earnest, 
will serve to make you such." 

" Dear E. : 

" I was gratified to receive your note of last Sab- 
bath evening, and to learn that you are able to be 
punctual in the discharge of your religious duties. I 
think you will find that the more faithful and sincere 
you are in the performance of them, the more satisfac- 
tion you will experience. That our devotions may 
be acceptable, we need to think of, and realize some- 
thing of, the character of God, and our relations 
to Him, before we attempt to address Him. You 
recollect the direction, ' Be not rash with thy mouth, 
and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything 
before God.' It is an awful profanation to mock 
God with thoughtless words, to speak to Him while 
our hearts are on other subjects. You speak of the 
change in your feelings after performing the duty. 
This is one of the great blessings of prayer. If the 
feelings are desponding, it cheers ; if they are dis- 
turbed and troubled, it soothes and quiets ; in trials 
and difficulties, it often lets in a stream of light which 
extricates us, and leads us where all is clear and plain. 
I have often been troubled and perplexed with some 
unpropitious circumstances in business, but after ask- 
ing counsel of God, or committing my way unto 
Him, all my difficulties have been unravelled, and 
have vanished. We are not sure that God will 



MEMORIAL. 151 

always answer our prayer just as we ask Him to ; but 
if we apply to Him in earnest, in our difficulties, we 
shall surely be answered in the way that is best for 
us. If you find difficulties in your lessons or recita- 
tions, you may often find relief by lifting a silent 
prayer to God for light and direction. Strive to keep 
close to God ; lean on Him, and He will be your best 
friend, ever ready to assist you and comfort you. 

" Our family seems quite small now — only we 
three. W. has gone to his rest, and your mother is 
by my side, before the parlor fire. At your stated 
hour we will breathe a prayer to God for you, and 
think that at the same moment you are addressing 
the same Being. How great the blessing of thus 
going mutually to our heavenly Father for blessings 
on each other ! Good-night. That God may bless 
and keep you is the fervent prayer of your affectionate 
father. 

" P. S. — We shall finish reading the New Testa- 
ment next Sabbath, and I think we will then turn back 
and read all our three chapters a day and five on the 
Sabbath, in the same place or along in course." 

" Dear E. : 

" You may think I do not sympathize with you in 
your troubles as much as some others, but I can 
assure you I do. I think of you often, and with the 
most tender solicitude ; but I know very well that to 
mourn with you would have the same effect on you 
that it would have had to give you mince-pies and 
beefsteak when you had your fever. It serves only 



152 MEMORIAL. 

to increase the malady. I can do you the most good 
by encouraging you to bear up manfully against any 
discouraging and disconsolate feelings. 

" Your thoughts and desires for home are very 
natural ; but you know that we ought to be submis- 
sive to the allotments of Providence, and to be con- 
tent with whatever duty requires. Our aim should 
be to get such a mastery over ourselves that when 
any feelings arise which should not, we can say to 
them, — Peace, be still. Feelings of despondency are 
only nurtured and increased by indulging them ; but 
if we rouse up and encounter them with a stout heart, 
we can throw them off. Indeed that iron will which 
says, ' I will do,' or ' I will be,' and carries out 
the determination steadily, earnestly, faithfully, is well- 
nigh invincible. We can do what we are firmly 
determined we will do. This mastery or control over 
yourself is what will make a man of you, far more 
than size or age." 

" Dear E. : 

" It is between 8 and 9 o'clock, and I think it 
probable you may, at this moment, be engaged in 
writing to me. We returned from the monthly con- 
cert a little after sunset ; and as the air was very soft 
and balmy, we sat in the piazza while the light was 
gradually fading away, and distant objects becoming 
more indistinct, and the stars, one by one, were lighted 
up, and the various sounds were hushed, except the 
cheerful chirp of the cricket, or the buzz of a fly, and 
the distant murmur of the river. The sunset dis- 



MEMORIAL. 158 

played an abundance of rich hues, and the clouds 
were hung out in all fantastic shapes, presenting 
splendid ' dissolving views.' How much has our 
kind heavenly Father combined in this beautiful world 
He has made, calculated to awaken emotions of delight 
and admiration ! The heavens and the earth are one 
great picture-gallery, hung with the most gorgeous 
scenes, upon which the eye can at any moment rest, 
and take in views of the most exquisite beauty. Per- 
haps we ought not to say they were all made expressly 
for our enjoyment, for they are just what we might 
expect would come from the hand of the most perfect 
workman in the universe ; and these all declare His 
perfections. But under what infinite obligations He 
has laid us by creating us capable of appreciating, 
admiring, and enjoying these excellences and beauties 
of His works. Let us honor Him and show our grat- 
itude by taking notice of His works which He has 
spread out before us. The more we contemplate 
them, the more will their excellence and glory appear, 
and the more shall we be led to admire and love the 
great Author. I hope, dear E., you will cultivate a 
habit of noticing minutely the beauties of nature, as 
you see them spread out in the wide and diversified 
landscape, the deep blue vault of heaven, ' the fleecy 
clouds,' the starry firmament, the bow of promise, the 
dew-drop, sparkling like a diamond in the morning 
sun, the lazy mist as it slowly creeps up the hill-side, 
the aurora, the gradual melting of day into night, and 
the shadows of the night again driven away by the 

20 



154 MEMORIAL. 

approaching beams of the ; god of day,' the delicate 
structure of the leaf, the various changes in vegeta- 
tion, from the formation of the bud to the shooting 
forth of the leaf, the stalk, the flower, the formation 
of the fruit. Examine all closely, and you will see 
the finger of God all the time at work, and new 
beauties and new excellences unfolding at each step. 
How strange it is that such multitudes live and die 
without ever discovering these excellences of God's 
works. 

' Like brutes they live, like brutes they die.' 

Let us try to honor our heavenly Father and pro- 
mote our own happiness by a more rational course." 

" Dear E. : 

" I was much gratified to learn that you were 
succeeding so well in your studies. I doubt not, if 
you will make the effort, you will place yourself by 
the side of the first scholars in your class. Have an 
iron determination that you will excel, and you will 
succeed. 

" I know very well what homesickness is by ex- 
perience. I have often been placed for weeks where 
there was nothing comfortable like home. But no 
mortal could dig it out of me, or make me own that 
I was homesick. I tried to cultivate a spirit of self- 
control, and to make myself contented where the 
providence of God called me ; and I would succeed 
in making myself reconciled, in a good measure, to 
the circumstances in which I was placed. I hope 



MEMORIAL. 155 

you will have a brave heart, and obtain a control over 
yourself in this and every other respect, so that you 
can give yourself with energy to your pursuits. 

" You speak of dissatisfaction that you have to 
room alone. We thought this plan would be far 
better for you. When with others, there is a constant 
tendency to have the attention diverted, and I think 
it would prevent you from making so good progress 
as you would otherwise. If it is your object to make 
the most of your time while at school, I have no doubt 
you will find this the best plan ; but if the only object 
were to have a good time with associates, it would 
be desirable to have room-mates. There is much time 
now that you will have with the others, and various 
sources of amusement. How many there are of your 
age who have to go out and work all day alone, who 
would leap with joy at your chance." 

" Baltimore. 
" My dear E. : 

" You are now at home, but as you will leave be- 
fore this could reach there, I shall direct to Andover. 
I trust it will find you comfortably located in your old 
quarters, and again engaged in your studies, and that 
you will find this term pass away more pleasantly 
than the last. Our happiness, however, depends in 
a great measure on ourselves. If it is sought or 
pursued as an object or end, it will never be obtained. 
It will be like the false meteor's glare, which 

' Shines to bewilder and lures to destroy,' 
or like the bubble, which floats in the sunbeam and 



156 MEMORIAL. 

reflects so many brilliant rays, but when caught, its 
beauty all vanishes. But if we diligently seek what 
duty requires of us, and then as diligently perform it, 
happiness will follow in the train, and crown our 
labors, without being sought. 

" I did not have opportunity to converse so fully 
with you, when you were at home, as I desired, in 
relation to your religious feelings. I am very desirous 
that you should take a high stand as a scholar, and 
distinguish yourself for correctness of deportment. 
But after all that is obtained, there is still a higher 
and nobler prize to contend for, and if not obtained, 
all the rest is of little value ; but if won, it renders 
all other accomplishments doubly valuable. If you 
obtain that pearl of great price, that wisdom for 
which a man must search as for silver, and seek as 
for hid treasure, the great object of life will be accom- 
plished, and you can say : ' Henceforth there is laid 
up for me a crown of righteousness.' 

" My dear son, noiv open your heart. Inquire 
earnestly, ' What must I do to be saved V Sit down 
and calmly and earnestly inquire, while you feel that 
you are in the immediate presence of the Almighty : 
How have I fulfilled His laws ? Which have I loved 
most, Christ or the world \ As a test, which do 
I choose, to associate with others or to hold com- 
munion with my Saviour 1 If you find others and 
other pursuits and objects chosen before Christ, fall 
down and confess your ingratitude and disobedience, 
and plead for mercy. Give yourself no peace till 



MEMORIAL. 157 

you have found it by deep repentance and faith in 
Christ. 

" I trust you will not just read this and let it all 
pass from your mind ; but think of it day by day. 
Will you not read it over carefully every morning- 
through the week, and bring your mind to think 
earnestly and seriously on your condition at least once 
every day for a week ] That God may bless you and 
convert you, shall be the earnest prayer of your affec- 
tionate father." 

« Dear E. : 

" We are glad to notice in your letters that you 
are feeling more contented and hopeful, and are mak- 
ing so good progress in your studies. It is our duty 
and our privilege to make ourselves contented with 
the lot Providence assigns to us ; and much of our 
unhappiness results from our own fault in giving way 
to and cherishing discontented feelings. When such 
feelings crowd into our hearts, we ought to think how 
preferable our condition is to that of a great portion 
of people. It is a cold, blustering day, but hundreds 
of young men are out to spend the day alone at hard 
work on the bleak hill-sides. Hundreds of persons 
suffering from want and shivering with cold, would 
be glad of employment by which they could earn bread 
and fuel and clothing for themselves and families. 
How strong the contrast between their condition and 
ours. When we think of it, every regretful feeling 
should be silenced, and our hearts rise with emotions 
of gratitude to the Father of our mercies who has 
made us to differ. 



158 MEMORIAL. 

" We are taught to overcome evil with good. A 
discontented, desponding, and unhappy frame of mind 
makes ourselves and our friends unhappy, and is dis- 
pleasing to our heavenly Father. A contented and 
cheerful disposition renders us and our friends happy, 
and obtains the favor of God. One is the dull, cold, 
rainy or snowy day ; the other is the bright, clear, 
glorious sunshine. How important, then, that we 
should cherish and keep alive a cheerful, hopeful, and 
courageous frame of mind. We have nothing, in fact, 
except our sins, which ought to produce any different 
effect ; for so many blessings and privileges cluster 
around our pathway continually, that, unless our hearts 
are very hard, we shall have our bosoms so full of 
love and gratitude as to overlook any trifling disquiet 
which may occasionally ruffle the stream of life. It 
is the weak and effeminate that give way to discontent 
and despondency. The strong and manly will drive 
off such feelings. 

" * Not enjoyment and not sorrow 

Is our destined end or way ; 
But to act that each to-morrow 

Find us farther than to-day. 
In the world's broad field of battle, 

In the bivouac of life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle ! 

Be a hero in the strife.' " 

" Dear E. : 

" How constant and innumerable are the favors 
which are bestowed upon us by our heavenly Father ! 
Even the things which seem most undesirable are 



MEMORIAL. 159 

checkered with blessings, and every evil has a com- 
pensating benefit. 

44 Our long winter has kept the vegetable world 
under 'lock and key' these many months, and the 
shroud of sombre white has grown tiresome, and we 
long again to see the bare ground, the verdure ever 
so grateful to the eye, the fragrance of the fresh 
springing herb, the sweet songs of the birds. But 
as I was looking out this evening, there seemed a 
beauty even in the cold drapery of the snow, as it 
reflected back the silvery rays of the moon ; the 
solemn stillness which wrapped the world was grand 
and impressive ; and the majestic march of the moon 
and her train of stars through the deep blue vault 
above led me to exclaim : ' The heavens declare the 
glory of God ; and the firmament showeth His handi- 
work.' Though I have been longing for spring, yet 
such an evening, so beautiful and grand, seems to 
rebuke me for not noticing with more heartfelt satis- 
faction the daily circumstances which are thrown in 
to relieve the monotony of winter. Oh how number- 
less are the blessings poured down upon us from our 
bountiful Benefactor ! 

" ' Go count the billows on the seas, 

And count the sands upon the shore, 
And count the leaves upon the trees, 

And count the stars, a shining store ; 
Then multiply the sum of all 

By any number that you will, 
Thy mercies, Lord, that daily fall, 

Are much more numerous still.' 



160 MEMORIAL. 

" Philadelphia, 1854. 
' Dear E. : 

" Your letter of Monday was received last evening-, 
for which I was much obliged. I suppose you found 
the history relating to Greece quite familiar, and the 
brief review will serve to give a general idea of the 
prominent events and persons. I shall hope to hear 
from you again to-night or to-morrow, with a con- 
tinuation of your notes. It will very much assist you 
in remembering the incidents, to have the history 
classed off in your mind as it is in the book. Such 
persons and such events were before the settlement 
of Athens ; such before the invasion of the Persians ; 
such during the Persian War ; such during the Pelo- 
ponnesian War, and such after it, — associating the 
prominent persons of one period with the prominent 
events, and, so far as possible, the date. And so of 
the Roman and other historians. I think it was Pope 
who wrote : ' Order is Heaven's first law ;' and it is 
of great advantage to have order in the stores of the 
mind. A merchant who has his goods thrown about 
his shelves in confusion, calicoes, screws, teas, nails, 
broadcloths, threads, knives, ribbons, etc., will never 
know where to find the article called for. So if our 
knowledge is thus piled into the mind, our memories 
will be distracted, and we can never recall what we 
are wishing to make use of. But if we try to associate 
things, events, and persons in groups and classes, 
they will be ready at hand when we want them, and 
will be fixed permanently in the memory. We think, 



MEMORIAL. 161 

for example, of Greek tragedy, when it possessed 
most strength, vigor, and sublimity, and we associate 
with it Aeschylus, and with him the battles of Mara- 
thon and Salamis, and fix the time a little more than 
four hundred and fifty years before Christ. I shall 
want you sometime to read ' Watts on the Improve- 
ment of the Mind,' which has some excellent sug- 
gestions." 

This letter, which was written away from home, 
and without any access to books, shows the accuracy 
of Mr. Fairbanks's historical knowledge. There was 
scarcely a point in Grecian, Roman, or English his- 
tory with which he was not fully acquainted, having 
even the dates at his command. By questioning him 
on various historical topics, his friends sometimes 
tried to detect him in mistakes ; but they always 
found the effort a futile one. 

" My dear E. : 

" It is of great importance in setting out in life 
that we should have some great object in view, and 
that object should be the one for which we are placed 
here. If we were brought into being for the purpose 
of acquiring wealth, then let us devote our whole time 
and energies to that object. If the purpose of our 
creation is simply the acquirement of knowledge, or 
the gratification of sensual delights, or to possess the 
honors and praise of the world, then let us give our 
undivided attention to those objects. But if we were 
made ' to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,' to 

21 



162 MEMORIAL. 

serve Him and to seek and obtain our enjoyment in 
Him, then let us make that our great aim, and let 
every other pursuit be auxiliary to that. In acquiring 
knowledge, let it be for the purpose of better under- 
standing the character and requirements of God, and 
of serving Him more acceptably ; and so of all our 
pursuits, let them be for the purpose of promoting 
that object, — the glory and the enjoyment of God. 
I hope, dear E., you will realize the importance of 
having a definite object in view, an aim to which all 
that you do will be tending, and that aim a noble one, 
that object the one which was designed by your 
Creator in giving you a being. If this object is 
steadily held in view, it will impart a stability and 
strength to the character which cannot be obtained by 
those who are wasting life without a definite object." 

" Dear E. : 

" We have all wished you a happy new year to-day, 
though we have not been able to express our wishes 
to you. May our heavenly Father bless and keep 
you through this year, giving you all things needful 
for your happiness, and withholding all that will be 
injurious, delivering you from temptation and evil, 
and enkindling in your bosom devout love for our 
blessed Saviour, in return for His exceeding great love 
for you. May He aid you in every duty, and make 
you diligent in His service, and give you success in 
all lawful and virtuous pursuits. May your life be 
precious in His sight ; but if this year He shall see fit 
to call you out of the world, may you be prepared for 



MEMORIAL. 163 

the summons, and be admitted to the joy of your 
Lord. Or if this year you shall be bereaved of your 
parents or friends, may you have Him for your parent 
and friend, whose favor is life, and whose loving- 
kindness is better than life. 

" At the commencement of the year, it is appro- 
priate to review the past, recount and meditate on 
God's mercies to us, write them down, dwell on our 
obligations to Him till our hearts burn with holy love ; 
also to remember with grief and sorrow of heart all 
our sins, ingratitude, and unfaithfulness, and earnestly 
to seek forgiveness. It is also a time when we should 
cast our eyes forward, and consider what course of 
conduct should mark the coming year. And as we 
ought always to aim at progress, we should form 
some resolutions or rules of life, reducing them to 
writing, and humbly beseeching God to aid us in 
performing them. I hope you will, dear E., form 
some such rules, embracing prominent duties which 
you are in danger of forgetting, and guarding against 
besetting sins. Write them down in your diary, and 
often refer to them, and strive to carry them out 
through the year ; in order to which you will need 
to seek, humbly, assistance from above.' 1 

" Dear E. : 

" To-day has been our communion season, an occa- 
sion which is well calculated to awaken feelings of 
deeper religious interest, and to refresh us with clearer 
views of the love of our blessed Saviour. I think I have 
had a greater degree of enjoyment to-day than usual, 



164 MEMORIAL. 

in thinking of the wonderful love of God, as displayed 
in working out at an expense so infinite a plan for our 
salvation. Why did He not let us go on in our own 
chosen ways, and reap the just wages of sin 1 Oh, it 
was His tender compassion for the poor and lost. It 
was love, such love as no other being in the universe 
ever did or could exercise, that led Him to provide a 
way for our escape by substituting the suffering and 
death of His dearly-beloved Son for ours. How can 
we ever repay such transcendent love 1 How poor 
will be the return if we only give ourselves, and yet 
what more can we do — or what less \ 

u Oh, E., let us give up ourselves and all we have 
to Him who has done so much for us. Let us live, 
not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us. 
We have only a few years to live on earth ; let those 
be spent in His service, and then what a bright, glo- 
rious prospect opens beyond ! — a world of joy and 
beauty, the companionship of angels and archangels, 
the presence of the glorified Saviour, the great white 
throne, and Him that sitteth thereon. If we can be 
so happy as to reach this blest abode, with what con- 
tempt shall we look back upon the trifles of this world, 
the allurements which are so often binding us down 
to the things of this present time. Let us strive for 
the crown, and strive in earnest. As those who con- 
tended in the ancient games, making preparation before- 
hand, and making every possible effort, so ought we 
to strive, running w T ith patience the race set before 
us, and looking to Jesus. 



MEMORIAL. 165 

"May 14, 1854. 
" Dear E. : 

" I suppose you are now in your little room, per- 
haps engaged in reading your Bible, or in your 
evening devotions. Your mother, W., and myself have 
just now kneeled down and implored God's blessing, 
and thanked Him for His mercies. It would be very 
pleasant if we could have you with us for an hour 
before we retire, that we might talk over the many 
favors that the good hand of our God has bestowed 
upon us. I am often filled with wonder at the con- 
tinued blessings poured out upon us while we are so 
unmindful of the Giver. Why is it that we should 
have such an abundance, while so many are destitute \ 
Why are we left so free and happy, while multitudes 
are groaning in cruel slavery ] Why are we taught 
the way of salvation and assured of the blessed 
Saviour's love, while the great mass of our race are 
going down the broad road, without ever having the 
glad news of salvation \ Surely goodness and mercy 
have followed us all our days, and how ought our 
hearts to glow with gratitude to the great Author of 
all our blessings ; and how great the privilege if we 
may be permitted to labor in some humble place in 
His vineyard, and show our gratitude by doing what 
we can to promote His cause. 

" I would like to have you write me what consti- 
tutes your Sunday reading. I hope the Bible will be 
the principal book for the Sabbath, and that you will 
read it with earnest attention, seeking to learn from 



166 MEMORIAL. 

every verse what duty is required of you, or what 
truth is taught. But, aside from this, you will doubt- 
less have some other reading ; and let me earnestly 
entreat you, dear E., not to open any book on God's 
day but such as pertains to religion. God might 
justly have required one half or two thirds, or six 
sevenths of our time for religious duties entirely ; but 
since He has required only every seventh day, let us 
be careful that we do not infringe on so reasonable a 
requirement, but let us devote it religiously to His 
service. It is well to take some suitable book and 
read it through by course, attentively. You took one 
of Abbott's books, which are very useful. Have you 
yet read it through 1 

" Some people fall into the habit of sleeping away 
the Sabbath, thus acting like the servant with one 
talent, who went and hid his Lord's money. We 
should beware of such a lazy habit, and strive to 
improve the holy time in a manner that God will 
approve. 

" You will find a great temptation, as the season 
advances, to be out on the Sabbath. Many think 
there is no harm in strolling about ; even some good 
folks excuse themselves for so doing, because they can 
then have a favorable time for religious meditation. 
But their example will be followed by others who 
have not such motives, and they will thus be the 
means of making others sin. , You will recollect the 
promise which you wrote down, that you would not 
wander out on the Sabbath ; and as you hope for the 



MEMORIAL. 167 

blessing of God and your father's approval, I trust 
you will always remember and keep it." 

" Dear E. : 

" I suppose you have some solicitude to know what 
college you will enter. I do not know as it will be 
best to decide for a certainty yet, but I think from all 
I can learn that the course of instruction in Col- 
lege is more thorough than any other, and on many 
accounts I would like to have you pursue your col- 
legiate course there. You would be likely to become 
a more thorough scholar, a stronger man, and be 
prepared for more extensive usefulness, by the course 
of training which you would there receive. With 
labor and application I think you may sustain yourself 
well there ; but it will require a strong effort, and I 
think you need to be where effort is necessary. Then 
the college is regarded as the best in the country, 
and has a reputation abroad of being one of the best 
in the world, and a diploma from that institution 
would be of more value than any other. Wherever 
your lot may be cast, if it is known that you graduated 
with respectability at , it will be of great advan- 
tage to you, and give you a favorable introduction 
to any literary society, either in this country or in 
Europe, if you should ever travel there, which I trust 
you will. 

" I think you will find the subject of your Greek 
dialogue quite interesting ; and it would be well that 
you should make yourself very familiar with the his- 
tory. That was one of the many cases in which the 



168 MEMORIAL. 

Athenians showed their ingratitude to their benefac- 
tors. The admirals had gained a most splendid vic- 
tory ; but because they had not done all that they had 
expected to do, the fickle populace demanded, and the 
Senate decreed, that they should be executed without 
a trial ; and Socrates was the only one who dared to 
stand up to the last and protest against such in- 
justice." 

" Philadelphia. 
" I was glad you found time to write a note, W., 
and hope I shall hear from you again at New York, 
and from E. likewise. I have thought much of you 
both to-day. You are now getting on to the verge 
of manhood, and will soon be called to act a part, 
I hope an important part, in the great drama of life. 
Perhaps I feel the importance more than you do of a 
character for uprightness and integrity, and on this 
account I often allude to it. If by ' line upon line, 
and precept upon precept,' I can lead you to form 
correct habits and imbibe correct principles, I shall 
confer the greatest benefit upon you that is in my 
power. But the only sure foundation for such habits 
and principles is in religion, — in repentance towards 
God and faith in Jesus Christ. It is my constant 
and earnest prayer, and I hope it will be yours also, 
that God by His spirit will lead you to the sincere 
exercise of repentance and faith." 



XI. 



About the first of February, 1855, Mr. Fairbanks, 
accompanied by his elder son, went on a business tour 
to the West, as far as St. Louis. The weather was 
more bleak, cold, and changeable than had been before 
known in that part of the country. The business he 
had to transact was of a complicated nature, and he 
was anxious to do it thoroughly, as he says, that he 
might not have to go again. " Almost every moment 
of my time," he writes, " has been occupied with 
business." His system thus overtaxed was not able 
to resist the effects of the inclement weather, and he 
contracted a severe cold, attended with a hard cough 
and some fever. He was very much prostrated, and 
was confined to his room about two weeks at Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

The following is an extract from the last letter he 
ever wrote. It was written at Chicago, after the dis- 
ease which terminated his life was fastened upon him, 
and only two or three days before his illness at Cleve- 
land, though there was no apprehension of its serious 
nature. 

" Chicago, March, 1855. 

" It seems a very long time, dearest, since I have 
heard from you. My movements have been so uncer- 
22 



J 70 MEMORIAL. 

tain that I have not been able to keep you advised 
where you could write me. Your letters to this place 
were received as we were going on to St. Louis, two 
weeks last Friday. By Tuesday I hope to be in 
Cleveland, and to find some later intelligence from 
you and other friends ; and I can assure you that 
letters will be as grateful as anything I can expect. 
I hope they will give continued assurance of your 
welfare and happiness, as well as that of the other 
friends. I have got all our business here satisfactorily 
arranged, and we expect to be on the way, Providence 
permitting, before six o'clock in the morning. 

" God has dealt kindly with us since we have been 
away, in preserving us from harm by the way, and 
for the most part continuing to us very comfortable 
health ; and I think I have enjoyed in some good 
degree His spiritual presence. I am more and more 
impressed every day with the greatness and exceeding- 
richness of the blessings God is pouring down upon 
us. Surely we must be most ungrateful if our hearts 
are not full of love and gratitude towards Him who is 
so rich in mercy. It would be most gratifying to me 
if I could know that He has been equally kind to you ; 
but after receiving so many tokens of His favor, it 
would be base indeed if I could not trust Him. I will 
not, therefore, indulge a doubt about your welfare. 

" We do not know what He has in store for us 
hereafter, hut we surely can trust in Him as He kindly 
invites us to, and if anything seemingly adverse does 
befall us, we may rest assured it will be for the best. 



MEMORIAL. 171 

There is one thing that seems to me desirable above 
anything else, and which awakens my deepest solici- 
tude and calls forth my most earnest prayers, and 
in this I know you share my intense anxiety ; it is 
the conversion of our children. If God would grant 
us this boon, I should feel that our cup did indeed 
run over with His goodness, and could say : ' Now 
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' Let us, 
dearest, be importunate in our intercessions, and it is 
possible that God of His great mercy will hear and 
answer us." 

Mr. Fairbanks arrived home about the middle of 
April, weaker and more exhausted than he had ever 
been before. But it was an inexpressible joy to him 
that he had reached his home, the home that he so 
much loved. " Now I shall quite enjoy being sick," 
he said. The first night after his return he said he 
hardly dared to close his eyes, lest he should wake and 
find it all a dream. At this time he had a general 
expectation that he would recover. Once he remarked, 
before his case became decided, " I do not know 
what Providence designs to do with me ; but it will 
be all right. I do not feel any anxiety about it." 
And subsequently, when told by one of his physicians 
that he could not probably do much more for him, he 
manifested no alarm. 

Soon after his arrival home, he inquired if the 
spring birds had come, saying, " Oh, I did so want 
to hear them sing the first time of the season ; " but 



172 MEMORIAL. 

those organs which were so delicately attuned for such 
music, could no longer catch the notes that were daily- 
warbled about his dwelling. Though his ears had 
become dull of hearing, his vision was yet unimpaired. 
Several times he requested to be raised up in his bed, 
and to have the blinds opened, calling for his glasses, 
that he might look out upon the scenery which had 
always been a source of the highest pleasure to him. 
Once he said : " Oh, how I longed to see these hills 
when I was away ! " 

Once during his sickness a cloud came over his 
mind, and he was in doubt respecting his spiritual 
condition. For a time he was in great agony, and 
refused to be comforted ; but at length he found peace 
that filled him with such joy that he tried to tell every 
one of it. " Oh, I wish," said he, " I could tell you 
what the Saviour has done for me." A week before 
he died, and when he thought his hour of departure 
had come, when some one offered him something, he 
said : " I want nothing but my Saviour. I know that 
my Redeemer liveth. I trust, oh, I trust. It is all 
sweet peace. Oh, I want to go — I want to go now. 
I want to see my Saviour — I cannot, oh, I cannot 
let Thee go. Come, Lord, open all the crystal foun- 
tains." Expressions like these, written down at the 
time by some one at his bedside, he continued till 
his strength was exhausted. 

One day his almost exclusive theme was, " God 
so loved the world ; " which he would repeat with the 
emphasis on different words, — " He so loved the world 



MEMORIAL. 173 

— how much it was — what an infinite love ! How 
could He love such a siuful race ! " And then chang- 
ing the accent, " He so loved the world, the whole 
world, everybody, that whosoever believeth might have 
eternal life. Oh, why will they not all believe X why 
will they not all love Him V 

The few last days of his life he seemed to lose sight 
of himself in his anxiety for his family, his friends, 
the Church, the Sabbath school, and particularly for 
the young men of the Village. 

His last words were addressed to his companion, — 
" May the Lord support you." He died on the 15th 
of May, 1855. 

His death was greatly lamented by a large circle of 
friends who knew his worth, not only on account of 
their own personal loss, but because the plans he had 
formed for greatly increased usefulness must fail. 

Large numbers gathered at the funeral service, 
during which the places of business and the schools 
were closed. And as the last rays of the sun were 
resting on the hills upon which he had so often looked 
with delight, loving friends bore him to his resting- 
place, and laid him in the quiet spot which his own 
fine taste had selected. 

At the time of his death Mr. Fairbanks was Pres- 
ident of the Passumpsic Bank, the Vermont Education 
Society, the Caledonia County Bible Society ; and, a 
few days before his death, he was elected one of the 
Vice-Presidents of the American Peace Society, in 
the place of the late Rev. Dr. Merrill, of Middlebury, 



174< MEMORIAL. 

Vermont. But he never valued place and office unless 
they came in the way of duty. Though requested to 
allow his name to be used for the State Senatorship, 
and for Representative to Congress, he promptly 
declined. In the words of the Roman historian, — 
" The less he sought glory, the more it followed him." 

Mr. Fairbanks was generally in delicate health ; 
this at times caused a depression of spirits which made 
him less demonstrative than he otherwise would have 
been. He had few popular elements of character, as 
a stranger would estimate them ; but he had the 
elements of the truest and most lasting popularity, — 
an unfaltering devotion to the best interests of man. 
He had a warm heart, that beat true to everything 
that was noble ; but this warmth was indicated more 
by acts than by words. His friends who knew him, 
loved him with a tender and ardent affection. 

It has been often said of him that he never had an 
enemy. He was so true and disinterested in all his 
intercourse with men, so free from all intrigue and 
the petty artifices by which men too often seek to 
accomplish their purposes, that he at once gained con- 
fidence, and never lost it. His delicate and quiet 
attentions to his friends were so carefully rendered, 
that there was never suspicion of neglect nor ground 
for coldness. How kindly he alludes, in a letter to 
a friend, to what no one but himself could have 
construed into an appearance of neglect : " I feared, 
before I left home, and have thought much of it 
since, that you might think me forgetful of you, as 



MEMORIAL. 175 

circumstances seemed to prevent that frequent inter- 
course which might have been mutually anticipated. 
It has occasioned me much anxiety lest I should, in 
consequence, lose some portion of your esteem ; but 
I hope this may not be the result, and that the future 
may prove more auspicious for social intercourse than 
the past." 

His friendship for children and his interest in all 
that pertained to their good formed a prominent feature 
in his character. His gentleness drew them around 
him and won their affection. He was unwearied in 
his efforts to benefit them. His mind was fruitful in 
devising means to cultivate their moral and intellectual 
powers. At one time, when absent from the Sabbath 
school, he addresses the children through the " Well- 
Spring ; " at another, he sends them a direct com- 
munication. How often in his journeyings does he 
remember the Sabbath school, and speak of his in- 
terest in its members ! The warm-hearted letters to 
his own children are but illustrations of his love for 
others. 

The following is a characteristic letter to a little 
child who was not at the time old enough to appre- 
ciate its value : 

" My dear little Nephew: 

" I can hardly claim an acquaintance with you, 
though I have seen what was once a part of you. 
One of your soft dark locks has found its way into 
this hyperborean region, and has had numerous en- 
comiums passed upon it by your numerous congeners 



176 MEMORIAL. 

of the tribe Fairbanks. I wonder not a little that 
you should venture into the world at a season so cold 
and uncomfortable ; but have good cheer, for bright 
days and warmer, I trust, are in store for you. We 
bid you welcome to our world, such as it is, to our 
homes and our hearts ; and we shall humbly pray to 
our Great Father that your stay may be long, and 
your life a happy and useful one. But, sharing in the 
common lot, you will do well to expect the bitter 
with the sweet — occasional clouds with the sunshine. 
Storms must sometimes be encountered on the voyage 
of life ; but with a brave and true heart, an attentive 
study of the chart, and a firm and steady hand at the 
helm, with a confiding reliance on Heaven for favor- 
ing gales, you will at last be wafted into the port of 
Peace for which we are all steering, and where we 
hope to enjoy perpetually serene skies and blooming 
spring ; where, also, we hope to meet a great host of 
pure and happy beings with whom we shall sing in 
concert the praises of Him who has loved us and 
redeemed us out of all nations to be His children. 

" A host of your namesakes here wish to be kindly 
remembered to you ; and they also congratulate your 
father and mother that a kind Providence has placed 
in their hands another pledge of His favor to them. 

" In due time we shall hope for a more intimate 
acquaintance with you, and a pleasant communion of 
thoughts and feelings ; until then please accept much 
love from your affectionate uncle, 

"J. P. Fairbanks." 



MEMORIAL. 177 

Mr. Fairbanks's love for the Sabbath was beyond 
that for all other days. It was his delight. In his 
letters no topic is more frequently alluded to than the 
" precious Sabbath." When he could enjoy its sacred 
stillness undisturbed, it was to him more than a symbol 
of heaven, — it was a foretaste, almost the fruition of 
its rest. The desecration of the day, which he was 
too often compelled to witness, was always deeply 
painful to him. 

Other characteristics might be dwelt upon : the 
strength of his attachment to his home, and his devo- 
tion to its happiness ; his sensitiveness in making his 
example and influence right even in little things ; his 
Christian patriotism ; his love of nature in its varied 
aspects, its beauties, and its grandeur ; his delicate and 
appreciative taste ; his wisdom and foresight, his calm 
and sound judgment, fair-mindedness, perseverance, 
and steadiness of purpose ; the spontaneousness with 
which he did every duty ; his integrity, guilelessness, 
and simplicity ; the uniformity and completeness of 
his piety, his humility and profound reverence for 
everything sacred ; — those who knew him will at 
once recognize all these as prominent elements in his 
character. 

In the record now given there has been a studious 
effort to avoid any coloring or over-estimate of his 
character and services ; it is a simple narratiye of 
facts, corroborated either by his letters and other 
writings, or by persons intimately acquainted with 
him. It is the painful conviction of the writer that 

23 



178 MEMORIAL. 

the portrait here presented gives but imperfectly the 
fulness and beauty of the original. 

The estimate of his character as given by others 
will form an appropriate close of this Memorial. 
The emphasis with which their views are expressed, 
and the entire agreement in them all that he was a 
man of uncommon worth, are especially noticeable. 

" In accordance with previous notice, the members 
of Caledonia County Bar held an adjourned meeting 
at the Court-room, on Friday, 22d instant, for the pur- 
pose of expressing some suitable tribute to the memory 
of Joseph P. Fairbanks, Esq., recently deceased. Hon. 
Charles Davis presided at the meeting, and G. A. 
Burbank, Esq., acted as Secretary. 

" The following appropriate resolutions were read 
by J. D. Stoddard, Esq. : 

c Resolved, by the members of the Bar of the County 
of Caledonia, That we have heard with a sad and pain- 
ful interest of the recent decease of Joseph P. Fair- 
banks, Esq., of St. Johnsbury, recognizing as we do 
in this affliction the loss of a most useful, modest, 
worthy man, — a man of sterling talents, of unerring 
judgment,* of tried fidelity to every duty, — a man of 
unfailing loyalty to every virtue, true ever to his 
neighbor, to his friends, to the community and society 
about him, to his State, to his country, and to his 
God. 

' Resolved, That we regard it as an honor to our- 



MEMORIAL. 179 

selves to extend to the near relatives and friends of 
such a man, so deeply endeared to all, the sincere and 
heartfelt sympathy inspired by the recollection of the 
pure and true life he lived ; and that we direct the 
Secretary of this meeting to present to his family this 
expression of our sentiments. 

1 Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be 
presented to the Honorable County Court now in 
session, with a request that the Clerk be directed to 
preserve the same among the minutes and records of 
the court.' 

" Mr. Stoddard accompanied the presentation of the 
above resolutions with some very appropriate and feel- 
ing remarks, eulogistic of the deceased. We regret 
that he has omitted to furnish us a sketch of them 
for publication. He was followed by S. W. Slade, 
Esq., the report of whose remarks we have been 
favored with, as follows : 

' Mr. Chairman, — I had been informed, and sup- 
posed until now, that on a recent occasion, when I was 
unavoidably absent, my brethren had expressed their 
feelings upon the subject now before them. On ac- 
count of my engagements in court this morning, I 
have but this moment been made aware of the object 
of this meeting. Of course I am destitute of all 
preparation for any participation in these proceedings. 
But I cannot refrain from rising to second the resolu- 
tions just read, and to give to them, as I do, my entire 
assent and approval. I cannot, like the gentleman 
who has preceded me (Mr. Stoddard), speak from 



180 MEMORIAL. 

any personal knowledge of the early career of our 
deceased friend. My acquaintance with him has been 
comparatively of recent date. I know as a matter of 
history that in youth he was industrious and studious, 
and sustained an unblemished reputation. He chose 
the law for his profession, and early in life, with his 
mind well stored with the fundamental principles of 
the common law, he was admitted to practice at this 
Bar. He continued in the active practice of his pro- 
fession, and I believe with good success, for a few 
years only, when he became connected with the cele- 
brated manufacturing establishment of the firm which 
bears his name. From its profits, mainly, he ac- 
cumulated an ample fortune, remaining a prominent 
and important member of the firm until his death. 

4 1 choose to speak of him as I knew him. He 
united in himself, to an eminent degree, the severe 
student and the thorough business man. Few men 
among us had acquired such a variety of knowledge. 
With our best literature, with history, both sacred and 
profane, universal geography, politics in its proper 
sense, and the various departments of business, he 
was remarkably familiar. 

' But it is on his moral and Christian virtues that 
I desire to dwell. In all the worthy, benevolent, 
charitable, and useful enterprises of the times, he felt 
a lively interest, and contributed liberally for their 
advancement. In his intercourse with men he was 
always modest, courteous, and kind, never treating the 
opinions of others with disrespect, but ever charitable 



MEMORIAL. 181 

towards those with whom he found himself unable to 
agree. He never resorted to deception, concealment, 
or intrigue, for the accomplishment of what he con- 
ceived a worthy object, but maintained his views 
frankly and openly, trusting in their merits for suc- 
cess. 

' He was my neighbor, my friend as I believe, and 
had been my patron and my client. I believe his 
ruling desire was conscientiously to discharge his 
whole duty, and I am not aware that I ever heard his 
honor, honesty, or integrity impugned or questioned. 
There can be no doubt that the early study of the 
law, which is defined to be a rule of conduct, is cal- 
culated to aid in imparting solidity to traits of charac- 
ter like his. I do not utter these words of eulogy 
because it is -popular or fashionable to speak thus of 
the dead, but I appeal to the record of his life as my 
witness to verify their truth. 

' In the prime and noonday of his manhood he has 
been cut down. But the value of his life and example 
is rarely equalled by those who have attained much 
riper years. 

' That life is long, which answers life's great end.' 

" Mr. Slade was followed by Bliss N. Davis, Esq., 
who, in a very brief but happy manner, dwelt upon the 
exemplary character of the deceased, as being worthy 
of imitation by every member of the Bar. 

" Theron Howard, Esq., also made a few appro- 
priate remarks." — Star. 



1 82 MEMORIAL. 

" The gentleman whose name heads this article 
died at his residence in St. Johnsbury on Tuesday of 
last week, the 15th inst. In this affliction, our State 
has lost another of her most talented, accomplished, 
and useful citizens. In every circle he was beloved, 
and to every honorable department of life he was an 
ornament. Educated for the profession of the law, 
his large and critical mind was of incalculable im- 
portance to the business firm of which he was a mem- 
ber. And though the immense labors of their scale 
manufactory would engross the time and attention of 
men even of much more than medium ability, the 
subject of this imperfect notice never passed by in- 
differently an object of charity, or failed to bestow the 
rich counsel of his generous and Christian mind. He 
rose in the world from the ordinary walks of country 
life, unaided and in swift progression, a bright and 
distinguished light in financial and social circles. His 
fellow-citizens have repeatedly honored him with their 
suffrages, for which he was duly grateful, but which 
he neither sought as a politician nor used as an aspirant 
merely. Several years he held a seat in the General 
Assembly, where he ranked high as a legislator and 
debater, and with whose members his influence was 
unusual and flattering. His scrupulous integrity and 
habitual urbanity gave him great influence over those 
who enjoyed the pleasure of his acquaintance. Up to 
his death he was President of the Passumpsic Bank, 
and was largely connected with many business enter- 
prises in this and other States ; the death, therefore, of 



MEMORIAL. 183 

Mr. Fairbanks is a public calamity. And when a 
public benefactor is removed, it is a gratification to 
pay a fitting tribute to his memory. But in this event 
we feel that words from any source are little needed. 
In the centre of hundreds -of grateful hearts, in the 
growth and beauty of the town now mourning their 
loss, in the widespread and progressive moral and 
religious sentiment of our happy State, — better far 
than eulogies, though their words were golden, than 
bronze statues or marble monuments, — his image 
and memory are forever embalmed." — Vermont 
Paper, 

" From a brief personal acquaintance, and from a 
long previous knowledge of this gentleman through 
an intimate friend, I had formed a high opinion of his 
character. He was indeed one of Vermont's noblest 
sons, — a man of tried worth and ability, and associ- 
ated in the memory of all who knew him with what- 
ever is honest and of good report. 

" He was educated for the profession of law, but 
found the extensive business of the firm more con- 
genial to his tastes. Unobtrusive, gentle, sedate, and 
quiet in his manners, he was also very thorough and 
efficient as a man of business. 

" It was owing to his enterprise that the ship-canal 
at Sault St. Marie, connecting Lakes Superior and 
Huron, was built by an Eastern company ; and in 
all his transactions his views were enlarged and com- 
prehensive. 



184* MEMORIAL. 

" But the crowning virtue of his character was that 
charm of goodness which seemed like an atmosphere 
about him, and which brought within its influence all 
with whom he had intercourse. It is a fortunate cir- 
cumstance for a community when, like that at St. 
Johnsbury, the leading minds are always on the right 
side ; they have shown how much good can be accom- 
plished by a few persons." — Western Paper. 

" In the death of Mr. Fairbanks, his family and 
friends sustain a severe bereavement. Our com- 
munity feel that a good, true, and faithful man has 
been taken from our midst ; and, verily, mourners go 
about our streets. He was unobtrusive, but fore- 
most and effective in every good work. His aim in 
life was to do good. Therefore, in every enterprise 
for the promotion of the spiritual, moral, and temporal 
well-being of his fellow-men, he contributed largely 
of his means and personal influence. And though his 
work on earth is done, the savor of his name will long 
survive. In his daily life the perfection of beauty 
shone forth with a lustre seldom eclipsed by living 
men ; consequently the influence of his example was 
powerful, and the circle of his friends limited only by 
the extent of his acquaintance. 

" We will not attempt to write his obituary. Some 
other person, better acquainted than we are with the 
facts relating to his life and its purposes, will, we 
presume, prepare a more extended and proper tribute 
to his memory ; but our own appreciation of his worth 



MEMORIAL. 185 

would not permit us to suffer the painful occasion to 
pass without this brief allusion to the many and rare 
excellences of his character." — Caledonian. 

" This community has suffered a severe loss by the 
death of Mr. Joseph P. Fairbanks, who died on the 
15th instant, after a long and distressing sickness. 
Of him, as truly as of any other man that ever lived, 
it might be said, — 

' None knew him but to love Mm, 
None named him but to praise.' 

He well deserved this universal love for his rare and 
excellent qualities of mind and heart. It might almost 
be said of him with truth what a modern writer says 
of a fictitious character : ' A spirit so blameless and 
placid, that we might almost think it had only been 
sent here because it is a greater joy to be a man and 
know by certain experiment the mystery of redemp- 
tion, than to be satisfied with such knowledge as the 
sinless in heaven can gain. It is happy for us, amid 
the dark records of common lives, that here and there 
God permits us one such man, born to be purer than 
his fellows, — so much lower than the angels that the 
taint of native sin has come with him into the world, — 
so much higher than they that the mantle of the Lord 
has fallen upon him, and he stands accepted in a 
holiness achieved by the Master and King of all.' 
His modesty, meekness, and humility were not the 
least praiseworthy of his virtues. His burial took 
place yesterday, and was attended by a very large 

24 



186 MEMORIAL. 

concourse of people from this and the adjoining towns. 
The schools and all places of business were closed, 
and the whole community joined in the last tribute 
to one whom they most sincerely respected and 
loved." — Vermont Paper. 

" Others have been providentially in positions re- 
quiring what seems to the world a more exclusively 
religious activity ; but we have known none who ap- 
peared more entirely devoted to the service of Christ, 
or who aimed with more constant meekness and gen- 
tleness to do all for the glory of God." — Vermont 
Chronicle. 

The following was published in one of the papers, 
and is an extract from a private letter of a gentleman, 
formerly a resident of St. Johnsbury : 

" It is with sorrow that I see in the last ' Journal ' 
the announcement of the death of Joseph P. Fairbanks. 
There are but few men that Vermont could not better 
have afforded to lose. A somewhat intimate acquaint- 
ance for the past few years had led me to esteem 
him as, all things considered, I esteem no man living. 
He was, indeed, to my mind, all that a man should 
be, in uprightness, integrity, benevolence, and true 
piety. His life seemed to fulfil the letter and the 
spirit of the requirement, ' to do justly, to love mercy, 
and to walk humbly with God.' I could fill a volume 
with encomiums upon his many virtues, but it is un- 
necessary." 



MEMORIAL. 187 

A gentleman of Vermont who knew him well writes 
thus in the " Congregationalist " (October 23, 1857) : 
" He was better beloved and more useful in life and 
more lamented in death than any other layman that 
Vermont ever produced." 

An eminent clergyman of Massachusetts says of 
him : " We know that there were but few like him ; 
so modest where he had a right to be assuming, so 
diffident where he might have been confident, so self- 
distrustful where all others knew he had a right, as 
evinced by a consistent life, to feel sure. But it is 
the grace of God that enabled him to live and die, 
leaving the light of an example and influence of a 
good name, which will be a precious legacy to his 
family." 

The following is an extract from a letter of a 
gentleman in Vermont to a resident of St. Johns- 
bury : 

" I had heard of the death of Mr. Fairbanks the 
day before the paper you so kindly sent reached me. 
I can hardly remember when my heart has been made 
more sad than at that distressing news. He was 
indeed a model man ; no one had a higher place in 
my esteem. I had known him from boyhood ; and, 
though but a year or two his senior in age, I had 
stood in the relation of a teacher of Latin to him 
when keeping district school in St. Johnsbury. Then 
I found that he had a mind of no common order. 



188 MEMORIAL. 

His loss is a severe one to the Church of God, to the 
neighborhood, and above all to his family connections. 
His death has made a vacancy which few that I know 
are fitted to fill. His amiable Christian deportment, 
always one and the same, would win every generous 
heart. 

" To you, who knew him better than myself, I need 
not speak of his excellences ; but to express my mind 
in a word, I do not know — all in all — his superior. 
His piety was of that every-day cast, interwoven with 
all his existence." 

The estimate of a former pastor should not be 
omitted. " I know not who there is," he says, " now 
among the living, who has possessed himself of such 
a measure at once of my grateful affection and of 
my unqualified esteem and admiration. His death 
will create a great void to you, to me, to very many. 
I indeed esteem, revere, and love the man, so as I 
esteem, revere, love, scarcely any other upon earth." 

One who long knew Mr. Fairbanks, in every re- 
lation of life, thus expresses his estimate of him ; 
" Among all my acquaintance and friends, I remem- 
ber few, perhaps none, who seem to me to have 
adorned life with so many sterling virtues, accom- 
panied with the c ornament of a meek and quiet 
spirit,' as Mr. Fairbanks. In all his relations he 
was a model man. Not perfect, for he was human ; 
but yet so exempt from the common failings of ordi- 



MEMORIAL. 189 

nary men, and, in his attainments, so far above the 
aspirations of ordinary Christians, as to make his 
character an example eminently worthy to be studied, 
to be admired, and to be imitated. The lives of such 
men are the jewels of the Church, and their record 
and portraits should be preserved for the instruction 
of both the Church and the world." 



THE END. 



